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UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 
EDUCATION 

Vol.  5,  No.  2,  pp.  241-288  July  30,  1914 


THE  DEMONSTRATION  PLAY  SCHOOL 
OF  1913 


BY 

CLARK  W.  HETHERINGTON 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  PRESS 
BERKELEY 


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UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 
EDUCATION 

Vol.  5,  No.  2,  pp.  241-288  July  30,  1914 


THE  DEMONSTRATION  PLAY  SCHOOL 
OF  1913* 


BY 

CLAEK  W.  HETHEEINGTON 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  Theory  of  the  Organization  of  the  Play  School  243 

A.  The  Idea  Summarized  with  Comments  243 

B.  Divisions  of  the  Report  245 

C.  Influences  Determining  the  Organization  of  the  Elementary 

School 246 

1.  Child  Life  and  the  Educational  Process  246 

(a)  The  Child's  Spontaneity  and  Play  246 

(b)  Relation  of  Play  and  Work  in  Education  248 

(c)  Perfecting  Nature  through  Leadership  253 

2.  Social  Progress  and  the  School  Organization  258 

(fl)   Industrialism,    the    Home,    and    the    Play    and 

School  Center  260 

(b)   New    Educational    Movements    and    the    Play 

School  Idea  261 

3.  The  Play  School  a  Reinterpreted  School  267 

D.  The  Problem  and  Analysis  of  Activities  267 

1.  The  Problem  in  the  Organization  of  Activities  269 

2.  Viewpoints   in   Considering   Activities — The  Leader's 

and  Teacher's  Problem  269 

*  A  report  to  Professor  Charles  H.  Rieber,  Dean  of  the  Summer  Session 
of  the  University  of  California,  on  the  Demonstration  Play  School  con- 
ducted during  the  Summer  Session  of  1913.  The  part  of  the  report 
explaining  the  theory  of  the  play  school  and  describing  its  activities  is 
an  amplification  of  the  brief  outline  submitted  to  Dean  Rieber  in  the 
winter  of  1912.  The  first  draft  of  this  report  was  submitted  to  several 
educators  for  criticism,  and  the  author  is  especially  indebted  to  Dr.  E.  C. 
Elliott,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  President  E.  C.  Stanford,  of  Clark 
College,  and  Dr.  C.  E.  Rugh,  of  the  University  of  California,  Professor  M.  V. 
O'Shea,  University  of  Wisconsin. 


305051 


242       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   ['Vol.  5 

PAGE 

3.  Activities  Classified  for  Administration  269 

4.  Description  of  the  Activities  269 

(a)  Big  Muscle  Activities  270 

(ft)   Manual  Activities  271 

(c)  Environmental  and  Nature  Activities  272 

(1)  Trips,  Excursions  272 

(a)  For  Nature  Observation  272 

(b)  Eor  Social  Observation   272 

(2)  Nature  Experimentations  272 

(a)  With  Physical  Nature  273 

(&)   With  Animal  Nature  273 

(c)  With  Plant  Nature  273 

(d)  Dramatic  Activities  274 

(e)  Ehythmic  and  Musical  Activities 274 

(f)  Social  Activities 275 

(g)  Vocal  and  Linguistic  Activities  276 

(h)   Economic   Activities  277 

5.  Summary   278 

II.  The  Demonstration  279 

1.  Conditions  and  Success  .* 279 

2.  The  Emphasis  for  the  Summer  279 

3.  Place  and  Equipment 279 

4.  Enrollment  and  Organization  of  Children 280 

5.  The  Leaders  280 

6.  The  Organization  of  Activities  282 

7.  Eesults  and  Criticisms  285 

8.  Recommendations   288 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913. 


I 

THEORY  OF  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE 
PLAY  SCHOOL 

A.  The  Idea  Summarized  With  Comments 

( '  The  play  school  is  a  school  organization  with  its  programme 
of  activities  and  methods,  based  on  the  central  idea  of  uniting 
the  spontaneous  play-life  of  the  child,  who  needs  and  desires 
leadership,  with  society's  demand  that  he  be  instructed.  It  is 
V  an  effort  to  solve  the  problems  of  elementary  education  by  har- 
monizing the  child's  extra-home  educational  experiences  through 
combining,  in  one  institution,  the  functions  of  the  play-center 
and  the  functions  of  the  school ;  hence  the  term  ' '  Play  School. ' ' 

Further,  the  plan  correlates,  through  a  simple  administrable 
grouping  of  the  child's  natural  activities,  and  through  an  ex- 
pansion of  the  idea  of  leadership,  many  of  the  apparently  diver- 
gent ideals  and  methods  in  modem  education  which  began  with 
Rousseau  and,  stimulated  by  recent  profound  social  changes, 
have  resulted  in  great  educational  restlessness  and  experimen- 
tation. 

For  the  little  children,  the  plan  absorbs  naturally  what  is 
sound  in  the  results  of  educational  experience  since  Froebel's 
time  and  extends  the  process  to  the  tender  years  of  infancy. 
For  the  larger  children,  it  brings  together  in  a  practical  school 
scheme,  and  extends  down  the  scale  of  years,  the  valuable  results 
and  the  ideals  that  initiated  them  in  many  recent  educational 
efforts,  namely,  the  "outdoor  school,"  the  vacation  school,  gar- 
dening, manual  training,  organized  excursions,  camps,  activities 
of  the  Boy  Scouts  and  Campfire  Girls,  "training  for  citizenship," 
intensive  individual  development,  etc. 

The  plan  correlates  and  gives  a  balanced  relationship  between 
physical  education,  moral  education  and  cultural  education.  It 
lays  the  real  foundation  for  vocational  training  and  guidance. 
Above  all,  it  establishes  in  school  practice  one  of  the  more  recent 
educational  discoveries :  the  necessity  of  leadership  in  play  from 


V 


244       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   V^^^-  5 

infancy  to  maturity  and  the  educational  superiority  of  leader- 
ship in  pla}^  to  instruction  in  work.  It  bridges  the  gap  between 
play  and  work. 

Therefore  the  Play  School  may  be  defined  as  an  outdoor 
\J  I  school  and  play-center  combined,  where  the  teacher's  interest  is 
centered  in  the  children  and  their  activities,  not  merely  in  sub- 
jects of  study,  where  the  educational  efforts,  including  the  moral 
and  social,  are  put  on  a  basis  of  practical  living  experience 
radiating  into  the  whole  environment,  and  where  children  are 
considered  both  as  free  active  agents  and  as  immature  social 
creatures  requiring  aid,  social  control  and  disciplined  Instead 
of  teaching  subjects,  it  organizes  activities  out  of  which  subjects 
develop,  as  they  have  in  racial  history.^  The  activities  organized 
are  the  natural,  more  or  less  distinct  phases  of  the  child's  com- 
plete life.  The  usual  school  subjects  develop  as  phases  of  these 
activities. 

In  spite  of  the  inclusiveness  of  this  ideal,  the  Play  School 
plan  as  presented  is  not  considered  an  invulnerable  or  perfected 
solution  of  the  elementary  school  problem.  No  school  scheme 
can  be  perfect  so  long  as  something  is  to  be  learned  about  child 
nature,  or  so  long  as  society  progresses,  and  no  individual  can 
present  a  perfect  solution.  That  is  a  race  problem.  But  the 
plan  seems  to  meet  in  general  the  fundamental  test  of  flexibility 
for  progress  with  every  advance  in  knowledge  of  child  nature, 
education,  or  social  need.  Again,  the  plan  is  not  presented  in 
a  spirit  of  antagonism  toward  the  public  school,  but  just  the 
V/  reverse.  /The  widespread  discontent  with  the  public  school  is 
recognized  /  and  my  idea  of  the  cause  of  this  discontent  is  ex- 
pressed. The  plan  proposes  a  step  in  organization  and  method 
that  will  make  modern  ideals  and  tendencies  consistent  and 
efficient  in  educational  results  and  that  will  command  the  sym- 
pathy and  support  of  the  more  progressive  and  intelligent  parents 
and  teachers.  This  sympathy  and  support  are  essential  if  the 
public  school  is  to  fulfill  its  functions. 

The  Play  School  is  not  even  presented  as  something  entirely 
new.  The  scheme  of  organization  and  interpretation  of  activities 
are  new,  at  least  in  form;  and  the  extent  of  application  of  the 
idea  of  leadership  and  the  degree  of  fusion  of  the  functions  of 


1914]  Hetkerington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  245 

the  child's  play-center  and  the  school  are  new  in  emphasis.  Yet 
the  educational  efficiency  of  the  activities  has  been  demonstrated 
in  numeroas  schools,  in  modern  playgrounds  and  in  boys'  and 
girls'  organization.  The  whole  idea  has  been  approximated  in 
many  private  efforts  and  in  a  few  public  schools.  The  conver- 
gence towards  a  fusion  of  the  school  and  play-center  is  seen, 
on  the  one  hand,  in  the  tendency  of  the  school  to  organize  the 
play-life  of  the  child,  well  illustrated  at  Gary,  Indiana,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  the  tendency  of  the  best  year-round  play- 
grounds to  organize  activities  that  are  usually  considered  school 
functions. 

My  own  ideas^  have  been  the  product,  first  of  reform-school 
work  and  then  of  intimate  contact  with  the  educational  results 
of  the  lower  schools  through  years  of  college  teaching  and  ex- 
perience in  organizing  play  and  recreation. 

While  the  essential  elements  in  the  theory  of  the  Play  School, 
namely,  the  identification  of  play  with  spontaneous  living,  and 
education  with  the  process  of  living — both  controlled  by  social 
conditions  and  depending  in  results  on  leadership — are  as  sound 
for  the  organization  of  secondary  and  higher  education  and  even 
the  molding  of  adult  sentiments  and  customs,  as  for  the  organ- 
ization of  the  education  of  infants  and  children,  yet  this  report 
is  confined  to  the  latter  problem,  because  it  is  fundamental  to 
the  rest  and  because  the  problems  of  organizing  activities  and 
leadership  are  quite  different  after  the  capacity  to  work  has 
been  established. 

B.  Divisions  of  the  Report 

An  interpretation  of  the  general  theory  of  the  Play  School, 
a  descripition  and  explanation  of  its  activities  are  given  in  divi- 
sions C  and  D,  and  conclusions  concerning  the  demonstration  of 
the  summer  of  1913  are  given  in  part  two  of  this  report. 


1 1  first  formulated  the  Play  School  scheme  as  a  school  for  subnormal 
children  after  two  years'  work  in  a  juvenile  reformatory  and  presented 
it  in  1899  while  a  Fellow  in  Clark  University  to  G.  Stanley  Hall.  Dr. 
Hall  urged  at  that  time  the  organization  of  such  a  school  in  Boston,  but 
it  could  not  be  financed.  Later  I  used  the  term  "Play  School"  in  my 
university  extension  of  physical  education  and  play  in  Missouri,  especially 
in  the  campaign  for  the  organization  of  playgrounds  under  the  school 
boards  of  rural  towns  with  the  hope  of  fusing  the  functions  "of  the  play- 
center  with  the  school.  I  left  the  University  of  Missouri  before  any  part 
ef  the  larger  idea  was  realized. 


246       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

C.  Influences  Determining  the  Organization  of  the 
Elementary  School 

The  school  as  a  social  institution  and  the  school  process, 
typified  by  the  curriculum,  require  a  perpetual  reinterpret ation 
and  reorganization  corresponding  to  advancing  knowledge  of 
\j  child  nature  on  the  one  hand,  arid  the  demands  of  social  progress 
on  the  other.  Since  the  play  school  is  a  reinterpretation,  it  must 
be  treated  from  both  these  standpoints. 

1.  Child  Life  and  the  Educational  Process 

A  larger  interpretation  of  the  child's  nature,  especially  in 
his  play-life,  must  be  based  on  the  fact  that  he  is  not  merely  a 
reflex  mechanism  responding  to  external  stimuli,  but  a  sponta- 
neously active  creature,  driven  by  internal  needs  and  hungers 
that  are  fundamental  springs  of  conduct.  Hungering  for  activ- 
ity, experience  and  expression,  he  develops  his  organic,  nervous, 
emotional  and  intellectual  powers  in  the  process  of  gaining  ad- 
justment. 

Spontaneously  curious  about  his  own  activities  and  those  of 
nature,  animals  and  man,  he  imitates  them  all  until  he  masters 
their  emotional  and  ideational  content.  He  is  spontaneously  a 
manipulator  of  things,  a  juggler  of  impressions,  and  he  con- 
structs with  things  and  ideas.  He  is  spontaneously  linguistic 
and  "talks"  until  he  can  express  what  he  observes,  thinks  and 
feels.  He  is  spontaneously  social  and  enters  into  social  relation- 
ships and  organizations.  He  is  spontaneously  suggestible  and 
educable ;  he  is  a  follower,  an  imitator,  a  hero-worshiper^  craving 
leadership  and  instruction  in  ways  of  acting  that  will  satisfy  his 
hungers  and  give  him  adjustment. 

This  spontaneous  expression  of  energy  under  the  stimulus  of 
hungers,  controlled  by  instincts  and  modified  by  experience  and 
social  tradition  and  susceptible  to  leadership,  is  play.  Play  is 
not  the  popular  "just  play"  nor  the  schoolman's  "mere  play." 
It  is  identical  with  the  child's  spontaneous  living.  Its  relation 
to  work  will  be  considered  later. 

If  time  permitted,  it  would  be  possible  to  show  that  play 
began  to  evolve  with  the  capacity  to  use  experience  and  choose 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Plmj  ScJiool  of  1913.  247 

ways  of  acting,  i.e.,  with  the  beginning  of  the  evolution  of  intel- 
lect. It  is  jiLst  as  deep  in  meaning  as  either  the  intellect  or  the 
will.  Its  function  is  to  develop  the  latent  plastic  powers  of 
rational  man  and  keep  him  flexible  through  adult  life.  Play  is 
the  central  element  in  the  scheme  of  human  nature  that  makes 
volition  possible. 

Infancy,  biologically  speaking,  is  a  period  for  parental  care 
during  which  time  systems  of  nervous  connections,  feelings  and 
ideas  are  developed  together  through  play  in  order  that  the  nerve 
paths  may  be  controlled  in  volitional  or  rational  conduct.-  With- 
out play  man  is  inconceivable;  play  makes  volition  and  rational 
living  possible.  There  is  no  meaning  to  the  phrase  "mere  play," 
for  play  is  the  most  important  activity  in  life. 

Play  is  nature's  method  of  education.  Why?  Because  edu- 
cation, in  its  broadest  sense,  is  identical  with  the  process  of 
living.  More  specifically,  it  is  learning  how  to  live  through, 
experience.  But  experience  comes  only  as  the  result  of  activity, 
and  play  is  the  fundamental  form  of  all  developmental  activity. 
It  is  spontaneous  living.  Out  of  the  various  reactions  upon  the 
environment  that  we  call  experience  comes  the  development  of 
the  instincts  and  emotions  and  the  experience  that  makes  for 
Ivuowledge,  character  and  adjustment. 

Schools,  books,  libraries,  laboratories  and  museums  are  only 
devices  to  give  opportunities  for  activity.  All  these  are  worth- 
less and  the  teacher  is  impotent  without  the  activity  of  the 
individual  to  be  educated.  And  play,  as  has  been  said,  is  the 
primary  form  of  this  activity.  * 

So  striking  is  the  child's  expression  of  his  energies,  so  broad 
his  curiosity  and  so  intense  his  delight  in  his  activities,  that  the 
most  conspicuous  thing  about  him  is  his  struggle  to  gain  an 
education.  And  his  struggle  is  rational.  He  is  as  much  "inter- 
ested" in  activities  that  develop  his  organic,  nervous  and  char- 
acter powers  as  he  is  in  getting  information,  and  vice  versa. 

The^ child  w^ants  a  real  education;  and  he  wants  to  get  it  in 
the  only  satisfactory  way — just  as  the  race  got  it,  through  ex- 
perience.   For  years  educators  have  been  going  to  the  child  witb 


.^i 


2  These  theoretical  interpretations  are  drawn  from  a  forthcoming  volume 
on  the  Nature  and  Function  of  Play. 


^ 


248       University  of  California  Puhlications  in  Education,   [^ol.  5 

their  "priceless  products  of  racial  experience,"  and  the  child 
has  said  (by  his  reactions)  :  "Go  to,  I  don't  want  your  canned 
goods.  I  want  the  fresh,  juicy  fruit  of  experience  gained  through 
my  own  activities" — and  he  gets  it,  though  frequently  it  is  of 
indifferent  quality  and  often  positively  bad. 

In  his  play,  which  is  his  real  life,  the  child  educates  himself, 
even  without  instruction  or  aid.  The  result,  however,  depends 
always  upon  the  character  of  the  activities,  and  this  is  deter- 
mined partly  by  the  individual  child's  temperament,  partly  by 
his  opportunities  and  largely  by  the  example  and  leadership 
supplied  in  his  environment.  Through  these  forces  come  devel- 
opment, and  character  and  ideals  are  formed.  It  is  the  duty  of 
education  as  a  social  effort  to  feed  the  spontaneous  life-hungers 
of  the  child  with  the  wisdom  of  the  race..  Co-operation  must 
be  given  that  the  play-life  may  be  broad,  rich  and  wholesome. 
Hence,  individual  leadership  is  essential. 

Leadership  means  study,  suggestion,  direction.  It  may  mean 
control  in  which  discipline  in  work  and  duty  have  a  place;  it 
never  means  mere  domination.  This  co-operation  and  leadership 
in  the  child 's  struggle  for  activity,  experience  and  self-expression, 
the  Play  School  proposes  to  give  completely. 


< 


Relation  of  Play  hii,d  Work — Education 
Disagreement  concerning  these  principles  may  arise  through 
old  misinterpretations  and  confused  notions  about  the  relation 
between  play  and  work.  _  The  fact  that  the  child  must  learn  to 
work  cannot  be  over-emphasized,  for  he  has  needs,  supplied  dur- 
ing the  .early  years  by  the  home,  that  later  he  must  satisfy  through 
work.  Moreover,  if  he  is  to  become  an  efficient  social  being,  he 
must  learn  to  perform  duties  that  frequently  are  not  pleasant 
and  his  adjustment  will  be  flexible  and  complete  in  proportion 
as  he  masters  the  essential  culture  of  the  race.  Born  into  a 
complex  social  order  that  is  the  product  of  long  ages  of  social 
evolution,  he  must  not  only  learn  to  work  but  acquire  the  capacity 
to  work  according  to  the  conditions  of  modern  society. 

The  ability  to  satisfy  needs,  to  perforni  onerous  duties  and 
to  acquire  culture  demands  the  capacity  for  long-sustained  voli- 
tional effort  under  the  control  of  an  idea  of  need  or  duty.    This 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  249 

is  work  in  its  developed  form.  This  capacity  to  work  is  not 
achieved  suddenly.  It  is  an  acquired  trait.  The  infant  has  no 
capacity  to  work :  the  capacity  is  acquired,  in  the  normally  devel- 
oped individual,  during  the  period  between  birth  and  maturity.^ 
It  appears  in  late  infancy  and  we  exploit  it  in  school  by  the 
sixth  year.  It  develops  very  gradually  up  to  the  age  of  seven, 
more  rapidly  from  seven  to  twelve,  and  increasingly  fast  during 
adolescence. 

The  rise  of  the  capacity  for  work  is  associated  Avith  and 
directly  dependent  upon  a  correlated  and  parallel  development 
of  (1)  the  power  for  volitional  action  in  the  plastic  nervous 
system  through  the  developmental  stimulus  of  activity  in  play; 
(2)  the  development  of  the  capacity  for  volitional  attention 
through  the  exercise  of  reflex  attention  in  the  instinctively  con- 
trolled activities  of  play;  (3)  the  development  of  the  capacity 
for  sustained  enthusiastic  effort  through  the  exercise  of  the 
emotion  of  expectancy  which  holds  attention  in  the  emotion- 
suffused  activities  of  play;  and,  finally,  (4)  the  development  of 
a  moral  sense  of  purpose  or  responsibility  or  ambition,  which 
comes  with  a  maturing  of  the  social  self. 

The  growth  of  all  these  nervous  and  mental  powers  that 
make  work  possible  begins  in  the  simple  and  instinctive  activities 
of  the  infant  which  every  one  recognizes  as  play.  The  young 
child  can  be  educated  in  no  other  way.  But  later  the  develop- 
ment may  be  continued  either  through  play  or  work  as  above 
defined,  and  it  is  just  here  that  the  confusion  arises  concerning 
the  relationships  of  play  and  work  in  education.  To  anticipate 
my  conclusions,  play,  because  of  its  emotional  accompaniment, 
is  a  more  efficient  developer  of  all  the  fundamental  powers  used 
in  work  than  work  itself. 

The  child's  activities  develop  progressively  (1)  in  the  mus- 
cular strength  used,  (2)  in  the  variety,  complexity,  duration  and 
co-ordination  of  movements,  (3)  in  the  number  of  instincts  and 


3  The  roots  of  both  play  and  work  are  present  from  the  beginning. 
The  struggle  to  satisfy  physical  needs  or  escape  discomforts  expressed 
by  vocal,  facial  and  general  bodily  movements  may  be  called  the  roots 
of  work.  The  struggle  to  satisfy  sense,  nervous  and  mental  needs  or  the 
spontaneous  actions  and  reactions  of  adjustment  may  be  called  the  roots 
of  play.  It  is  in  these  latter  activities  primarily  that  all  the  higher 
powers  for  work  and  play  are  developed. 


\/ 


250       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

desires  and  the  form  and  intensity  of  their  expression,  (4)  in 
the  breadth  of  the  associative  processes  used,  and  (5)  in  the 
span  of  sustained  effort  in  the  accomplishing  of  a  desired  end. 

Now,  the  activities  exhibiting  this  progressive  development 
may  frequently  he  considered  either  play  or  work  according  to 
the  point  of  view.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  child,  there  are 
only  two  classes  of  activity :  internally  impelled  activity,  or  play, 
and  externally  impelled  activity,  or  work.  Any  activity  from 
the  child's  standpoint,  no  matter  what  the  powers  used,  the  energy 
expended,  or  the  duration  of  the  effort,  is  play  if  it  is  internally 
impelled  and  satisfies  the  developing  life-hungers  and  instincts  of 
the  age  period. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  adult,  or  objectively  considered, 
the  activities  of  the  child  that  are  sustained  and  have  a  purpose 
or  future  aim  are  apt  to  be  called  Avork;  but,  obviously,  this  is 
an  interpretation  of  child-life  in  adult  terms.  The  adult,  if  he 
is  an  efficient  social  being,  must  work  and  he  must  recreate.  No 
such  situation  exists  normally  in  child-life.  The  child  gains  his 
economic  adjustment  through  the  home.  His  play  is  both  recre- 
ation and  work  and  it  is  neither  recreation  or  work:  it  is  life. 
Before  maturity  his  play  activities  are  differentiated  into  the 
capacity  for  work  and  the  need  for  recreation.  The  child's  play 
is  not  recreation  as  usually  understood  and  we  cannot  insist  on 
that  too  strenuously.  Play  is  the  child's  chief  business  in  life. 
In  these  internally  impelled  activities  he  lives  and  learns  how 
to  live.  In  them  he  should  gain  his  primary  development  and 
life  adjustment. 

Play  is  as  broad  as  the  child's  developing  life.  The  activities 
frequently  take  forms  that  are  not  efficient  from  the  adult  or 
educational  standpoint;  but  to  identify  the  child's  play  with 
"fooling"  or  "futility"  only,  shows  a  twisted  understanding  of 
child  nature  that  is  a  very  subtle  survival  of  medievalism  in 
modern  educational  thought.  This  is  exhibited  in  the  shrinking 
from  the  idea  of  play  as  an  educational  force. 

There  need  be  no  quibbling  about  the  fact  that  a  high  capacity 
for  work  can  be  developed,  has  been  developed  generally  in  the 
past  through  work,  though  the  efficiency  of  the  majority  of  indi- 
viduals developed  by  this  method  alone  can  be  questioned.    But 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Plaxj  ScJiool  of  1913.  251 

the  essential  point  to  be  recognized  is  that,  all  through  childhood, 
play  is  superior  to  work  as  a  developer  of  the  nervous  and  mental 
powers  used  in  work  because  of  its  emotional  content.  Moreover, 
the  degree  of  development  of  the  power  for  work  depends  upon 
the  breadth  and  richness  of  the  play  experience. 

Play  is  more  intense,  varied  and  of  greater  duration  because 
of  the  sustaining  power  of  enthusiasm  which  postpones  the  onset 
of  fatigue  and  reduces  the  consciousness  of  effort  which  charac- 
terizes the  volitional  attention  of  work."  Therefore,  as  power 
is  a  product  of  activit}^  play  is  a  better  developer  of  nervous 
energy  and  volitional  attention  than  work.  It  is  essentially  the 
developer  of  enthusiasm,  which  is  the  very  essence  of  play. 

Enthusiasm  is  expectancy:  the  emotional  side  of  the  instinct 
of  attention,  long  drawn-out  or  combined  with  the  idea  of  an 
activity  that  will  satisfy  a  hunger  or  developed  desire.  It  is 
developed  like  any  other  capacity — through  exercise  in  activities 
that  feed  the  nervous  and  mental  hungers  and  exercise  the  im- 
pulses characteristic  of  age  periods.  Enthusiasm  is  the  spirit 
of  healthy  childhood.  It  carries  the  burden  of  sustained  voli- 
tional effort  until  the  capacity  for  sustained  effort  is  established 
as  a  habit. 

Play,  therefore,  is  a  better  developer  than  work  of  the  whole 
work  mechanism.  It  develops  organic  vitality,  nervous  energy 
and  skill,  interests,  volitional  attention  and  enthusiasm  together, 
as  a  unified  and  efficient  working  whole.  Work  is  less  effective 
because  it  disassociates  the  development  of  the  capacity  for  enthu- 
siasm from  the  development  of  the  capacity  for  volitional  effort 
and  attention  in  realizing  aims. 

The  capacity  to  work,  therefore,  as  a  part  of  the  capacity  to 
live,  is  best  developed  in  the  child's  natural  life  or  play.  It  is 
developed  only  in  a  negative  way  when  the  child  sits  still  and 
does  things  foreign  to  its  nature  in  obedience  to  the  commands 
of  adults.  Such  lack  of  activity  depresses  vitality  and  inhibits 
the  development  of  the  nervous  system,  volitional  enthusiasm, 
and  experience.  It  is  one  of  the  several  factors  that  have  caused 
children  to  "forget  how  to  play." 

The  capacity  to  work  from  its  simplest  to  its  highest  form 
is  acquired  most  efficiently  by  living  out  in  activity,  broadly  and 


252       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education,   [^ol.  5 

intensely,  the  hungers  and  instincts  characteristic  of  each  age 
period ;  living  them  out  in  a  social  environment  that  supplies  not 
only  progressively  greater  opportunities  for  activity,  experience 
and  self-expression,  but  progressively  greater  opportunities  for 
accomplishment  under  a  leader  who  molds  ideals,  and  under 
social  contacts  charged  with  emulation.  By  realizing  a  progres- 
sive series  of  aims  in  play,  the  child  learns  how  to  work  and  to 
achieve  life  through  work.    This  is  the  law  of  child  progress. 

If  the  capacity  to  work  does  not  come  out  of  these  inspir- 
ations to  live  and  work,  nothing  this  side  of  a  new  ancestry  can 
give  it,  and  the  individual  is  a  subject  for  an  institution  for  the 
socially  dependent. 

The  developing  work  mechanism  will  be  used  in  fulfilling 
social  duties  and  obligations,  when  the  social  spirit  in  the  child's 
instinctive  loyalty,  co-operation,  self -subordination  and  capacity 
for  leadership  is  converted  gradually  into  a  consciousness  of 
social  relationships,  interdependence  and  obligations.  This  can 
be  accomplished  through  the  socializing  influence  of  a  progressive 
social  experience  under  a  leader  who  has  in  the  background  of 
his  consciousness  a  social  aim. 

Again,  the  work  mechanism  will  be  used  in  acquiring  racial 
culture  and  a  higher  adjustment  through  the  use  of  books  when 
social  experience  and  leadership  bring  a  consciousness  of  their 
worth.  This  will  come  early  in  some,  later  in  others,  probably 
not  at  all  in  many,  but  until  books  are  attached  to  the  central 
and  developing  enthusiasms  in  life,  as  aids  in  living,  they  will 
not  be  used  extensively  by  the  masses. 

Vocational  training  and  guidance  are  but  a  phase  of  this 
work-play  programme  and  not  the  first  or  most  important  one, 
since  a  vocation  is  but  one  form  of  adult  adjustment,  arising 
out  of  the  child's  progressive  adjustment.  A  vocation  is  an 
individual  matter  realized  through  living,  and  in  this  living  the 
individual  should  develop  an  enthusiasm  for  life  and  work; 
should  discover,  under  leadership,  his  individual  capacities  and 
attach  the  enthusiasm  and  the  capacity  to  that  specialized  social 
thing,  an  occupation. 

Better  educational  results  in  general  and  a  broader  and 
higher  capacity  to  work  are  secured  by  organizing  the  child's 


1914]  Hetherington.—TJie  Play  School  of  1913.  253 

natural  self-sustaining  activities  than  by  forcing  upon  him  those 
foreign  to  his  nature.  To  lay  the  foundation  during  childhood 
for  efficient  citizens  and  workers,  the  hunger  for  life,  the  power 
for  sustained  activity,  the  enthusiasm  in  doing  and  ideals  in 
living  must  evolve  together. 

This  natural  method  of  developing  workers  will  produce,  has 
always  produced,  citizens  to  whom  work  is  "play"  because  it 
carries  the  enthusiasm  of  play. 

The  difficulty  in  appreciating  the  law  of  learning  how  to 
work  is  the  universal,  thought-warping  tendency  of  adults  to 
interpret  child-life  in  adult  terms.  The  attitudes  towards  play 
and  work  need  to  be  restated:  (a)  From  an  adult  standpoint, 
play  is  a  form  of  activity  set  over  against  the  effort  required  by 
the  driving  necessities  of  adult  needs ;  f 6 )  from  the  child 's  stand- 
point, play  is  living;  work  is  effort  that  has  no  connection  with 
instinctive  or  emotional  tendencies;  (c)  from  an  educational 
standpoint,  play  is  a  developer  of  all  the  fundamental  powers  of 
the  plastic  growing  organism:  work  is  an  educational  aim  that 
is  to  be  realized  through  living  out  interests  characteristic  of  the 
several  stages  of  child  development  until  the  work  mechanism 
is  established. 

The  law,  then,  of  the  relations  of  play  and  work  in  education 
may  be  stated  as  follows:  Play,  as  internally  impelled  activity 
is  practically  the  only  method  of  education  during  infancy;  is 
the  most  efficient  method  all  through  childhood;  retains  a  con- 
spicuous place  during  youth  and  even  in  adult  life,  as  indicated 
by  the  modern  attitude  towards  Jeisure  time.  Work,  as  externally 
impelled  activity,  has  little  place  in  the  life  of  the  infant,  a 
subordinate  though  gradually  developing  place  in  the  life  of  the 
child,  but  an  increasingly  important  place  during  youth. 


Perfecting  Nature  through  Leadership 
In  many  fields  of  human  effort,  notably  in  engineering  and 
the  production  of  domestic  animals  and  plant  forms,  man  has 
progressed  by  learning  nature's  laws  and  co-operating  with 
nature  or  controlling  and  perfecting  her  processes.  In  education, 
man  has  neglected,  even  fought  nature. 


254       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

This  is  shown  most  conspicuously  in  the  traditional  attitude 
I  /towards  play  and  the  neglect  of  its  physical,  intellectual  and 
moral  meaning.  Considered  without  traditional  bias,  education 
holds  no  antagonism  between  play  as  the  living  out  of  hungers 
and  instincts,  and  work  as  a  developing  capacity  for  efficient 
living  in  a  highly  complex,  specialized  civilization.  Such  antag- 
onism is  medieval  and  frequently  carries  with  it  a  survival  of 
asceticism.  The  traditional  school  evolved  its  organization  for 
the  convenience  of  the  teacher  in  transmitting  information  to 
a  physically  passive  child.  Play  frequently  interfered  with  the 
teacher's  programme,  hence  was  interpreted  as  a  product  of  the 
imps.    Does  not  this  attitude  still  survive? 

Because  play  has  been  despised,  the  programmes  for  moral 
education  are  weak  and  bloodless.  Morals  and  character  in  child- 
life  come  out  of  living  under  influences  that  mold  associated 
ideals  and  instinctive  ways  of  acting ;  not  out  of  drill  in  abstract 
precepts  or  in  thinking  about  conduct  disassociated  from  real 
conduct,  however  valuable  the  latter  may  be  when  supplementary 
to  the  laboratory  method,  which  is  directed  play.  Ethical  in- 
struction, to  be  dynamic,  must  be  built  on  a  broad  foundation 
of  instincts  trained  in  play,  under  a  leader  who  has  the  ethical 
aims  and  who  will  fix  the  ethical  ideal.  This  is  a  practical  pro- 
gramme for  the  masses. 

In  the  unnatural  conflict  between  the  mental  and  the  physical, 
this  bias  in  educational  thought  is  even  more  apparent.  The 
traditional  school  has  dealt  with  one  narrow  phase  of  child 
nature.  It  still  recognizes  organic  and  nervous  education  with 
begrudging  stinginess  and  is  attempting  to  bolster  the  traditional 
programme  with  a  "school  hygiene"  that,  as  a  substitute,  is 
utterly  futile.  This  superficial  and  unscientific  attitude  is  car- 
ried over  from  a  phase  of  philosophical  speculation  that  has  no 
place  in  education.  Physicjl_education  is  discussed  as  though 
it  were  a  subject  of  study  in  the  curriculum,  instead  of  one  atti- 
tude in  considering  the  whole  educational  process,  of  which  it 
is  the  basic  part.  Physical  education,  as  a  special  field  of  edu- 
cational effort,  arose  because  of  the  twist  in  educational  thought 
created  by  the  rise  of  asceticism.  It  persists  because  of  a  sur- 
vival of  asceticism.     Because  of  this  bias,  the  programmes  for 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  ScJiool  of  1913.  255 

physical  education  in  most  schools  are  pathetically  superficial 
and  the  children  show  it.  Vigorous,  big  muscle  play  is  nature's 
method  of  physical  education  and  bulks  large  in  the  efficient 
programme. 

So  obsessed  is  our  consciousness  with  the  idea  that  education 
is  something  w^hich  comes  from  books,  and  so  dominant  has  been 
the  intellectual  or  cultural  idea,  that  the  masses  of  children  are 
prevented  from  getting  an  educational  experience.  We  insist 
that  they  shall  master  the  tools  of  learning  before  they  get  any 
experience  and  then  that  they  shall  take  it  second-hand.  At  one 
extreme  there  develops  a  group  of  individuals  having  the  capac- 
ity to  acquire  large  masses  of  book-learning  with  a  small  fovm- 
dation  in  practical  experience;  and  at  the  other,  a  group  who 
may  or  may  not  have  had  real  experience,  but  who  have  a  con- 
tempt for  books  and  no  realization  of  their  value  as  essential 
aids  in  living  or  as  sources  of  inspiration  for  a  higher  adjustment. 
Modern  literature  on  teaching  is  strewn  with  the  word  "moti- 
vation." Every  effort  to  find  a  "motive"  for  an  activity  or  a 
subject  of  study  is  a  search  for  its  basis  in  a  hunger  or  instinct 
which  underlies  the  child's  spontaneous  life.  This  search  repre- 
sents generally  the  attitude  of  the  adult,  with  an  adult's  interest, 
trying  to  find  some  way  of  attaching  that  interest  to  the  child's 
native  tendencies.     It  illustrates  the  breadth  of  the  psychic  gap 

j  between  the  teacher  and  the  child  and  the  dominance  of  the 

'attitude  of  teaching,  rather  than  leading. 

Why  not  shift  the  problem  from  the  organization  of  "sub- 
jects of  study ' '  that  are  selfected  products  of  racial  achievement, 
to  the  organization  of  the  child's  own  spontaneous  active  life; 
from  the  attitude  of  teaching  primarily  to  that  of  leading  (which 
includes  teaching)  ?  Why  not  abandon  our  indifference  towards 
the  child's  play  and  recognize  it  as  complete  living,  from  his 
viewpoint,  as  well  as  the  dominant  source  of  all  educational 
values  ?  Why  not  put  our  aims  and  our  specialized  adult,  inter 
ests  in  the  background  of  our  consciousness  and  enter  into  the 
child's  life  from  his  point  of  view,  meeting  his  hunger  for  life 
and  his  desire  for  leadership  with  the  resources  of  the  adult? 
In  this  way  we  can  make  his  activities  a  source  of  inspiration 
to  him  and  perfect  their  results  from  an  educational  standpoint. 


iX 


256       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   ['V^ol-  5 

Does  not  this  attitude  complete  modern  tendencies  in  educa- 
tional thought?  Will  it  not  make  public  education  efficient  for 
the  masses? 

In  this  larger  conception  of  education,  leadership  is  the  prime 
essential.  Teaching  is  but  a  part  of  the  leadership  for  which 
the  child's  hunger  is  as  conspicuous  as  his  hunger  for  education. 
He  craves  life  intensely,  but  his  imagination  outruns  his  skill 
and  judgment.  His  resources  are  limited;  his  attention  is  fleet- 
ing; his  enthusiasm  breaks  down.  He  must  have  leadership  if 
his  activities  are  to  he  satisfying  or  educationally  efficient. 
Though  he  rebels  at  domination,  he  constantly  appeals  for  help 
in  finding  something  to  do  and  in  achieving  his  desires;  and, 
when  leadership  is  given  and  accepted,  he  will  submit  to  endless 
direction,  and,  as  age  advances,  to  increasingly  severe  discipline. 
This  is  proven  daily  on  the  play  field  and  in  boys'  and  girls' 
clubs. 

By  entering  into  the  child's  life,  it  is  a  simple  matter  to  lead 
him  so  as  to  loop  the  cultural  material  of  the  race  to  his  hungers 
and  thus  achieve  results  not  possible  under  the  sub ject-of -study 
teaching  programme.  That  process  is  inverted.  It  must  be  rec- 
ognized, however,  that  there  are  enormous  variations  in  children 's 
capacities  for  progress  in  various  activities  and  in  their  suscepti- 
bility to  suggestion. 

Here  appears  a  danger.  A  vast  difference  exists  between 
learning  nature's  laws  in  the  development  of  child-life  and  co- 
operating with  her  or  perfecting  her  processes  through  the  child's 
susceptibility  to  leadership,  and  the  skillful  exploitation  of  that 
susceptibility  to  satisfy  the  vanity  of  parents  or  teachers  whose 
minds  are  cataleptic  under  the  obsession  of  some  educational 
fetish.  We  are  in  some  danger  of  entering  into  an  age  of  child 
prodigies. 

Objections  are  raised  that  education  is  inefficient  because  it 
is  made  too  easy.  Signs  of  a  reaction  have  appeared.  Now, 
whatever  of  justice  there  may  be  in  criticisms  of  "teaching 
through  play"  no  justice  exists  in  criticisms  of  the  leadership  of 
play.  This  leadership  has  its  biological  roots  in  the  evolution 
of  the  inter-relationships  between  parent  and  child,  and  play  is 
not  "easy"  in  the  sense  of  being  devoid  of  effort  or  hardship. 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  257 

Both  the  intensity  and  the  duration  of  extreme  effort  in  many 
forms  of  play  activities  are  so  striking  that  few  adult  activities 
can  be  compared  with  them. 

Play  is  interesting,  but  to  interpret  education  as  something 
uninteresting  strikes  the  very  nervous  system  of  education  with 
a  palsy;  and  to  say  that  because  anything  is  interesting  it  is 
educationally  undesirable  is  surely  a  survival  of  asceticism.  We 
have  failed  in  education  because  we  have  ignored  play  and 
divorced  education  from  life. 

The  dominance  in  education  of  the  play  motive,  or  real  living 
in  obedience  to  real  present  needs  during  child-life,  does  not 
mean  that  there  shall  be  no  discipline.  Living  is  discipline. 
The  child,  like  his  ancestors  from  the  beginning,  is  driven  by 
hungers  and  controlled  by  instincts  that  are  non-specific.  His 
conduct  is  largely  the  product  of  experimental  experience,  which 
frequently  causes  pain  as  well  as  pleasure.  So  was  the  conduct 
of  his  ancestors.  As  a  result  of  racial  experimentation,  the  child 
is  born  into  a  complex  network  of  ways  of  acting,  both  good  and 
bad.  Lacking  judgment  and  perspective,  he  is  apt  to  imitate 
the  bad  examples  in  his  social  environment  as  well  as  the  good, 
thus  forming  habits,  ideals  and  character  that  are  bad  for  him 
and  for  society.  To  mold  the  ideals  developing  in  the  child's 
experience  is  the  function  of  the  parent  and  society's  represent- 
ative of  the  parent,  the  leader  or  teacher.  Discipline  by  adults, 
like  leadership,  has  its  roots  in  the  biological  relationships  of 
parent  and  child. 

Practically  all  the  bad  habits  known  to  childhood  and  youth  / 
are  the  product  of  our  neglect  of  this  function  of  leadership. 
Vices  develop  in  play.  This  is  the  negative  argument  for  put- 
ting moral  education  on  a  laboratory  basis  of  directed  play.  The 
danger  here  is  that,  with  the  prevalent  notion  about  "teaching," 
the  tendency  will  be  to  control  the  experimentations  too  strictly 
and  to  control  ideals  before  there  has  been  experience. 

To  summarize,  it  would  seem,  therefore,  that  education  will   \ 
be  efficient  when  we  bring  the  resources  of  adults  to  aid  the  child  / 
in  his  struggle  for  activity,  experience  and  self-expression  and^ 
when  adult  leaders  meet  the  child's  hunger  for  guidance  with 
the  spirit  of  a  superior  playfellow  and  with  the  discipline  of"      ) 
leadership.    This  the  Play  School  proposes  to  do.  ^"""^ 


/ 


>r 


\ 


\ 


258       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education,   i'^oi.  5 

2.  Social  Progress  and  the  School  Organization 

While  the  Play  School  is  primarily  a  prodviet  of  child-study, 
it  is  also  demanded  by  the  new  educational  conditions  attendant 
upon  social  progress.  No  phenomenon  of  our  civilization  is  more 
striking  than  the  rise  of  modern  industrialism,  no  force  more 
potent  in  its  influence  on  the  home  and  child-life. 

In  the  past,  the  home  was  the  center  of  life  and  experience. 
The  majority  of  homes  were  not  only  the  centers  of  family  life, 
but  they  were  industrial  and  social  centers,  furnishing  large 
opportunity  for  the  child  to  see  and  participate  in  all  the  essen- 
tial human  activities.  The  factory  took  from  the  home  both  the 
industrial  occupation  and  the  machinery  of  manufacture,  with 
.all  their  stimulus  and  opportunity  for  child  activity.  Hence, 
the  function  and  the  size  of  the  home  have  contracted  and  with 
the  contraction  the  function  of  the  home  as  a  social  center  has 
declined.  Entertainments  are  sought  outside  in  commercial 
amusement  centers,  with  a  further  contraction  of  educational 
stimulus  in  the  home.  Moreover,  the  size  of  the  family  has  de- 
creased, leaving  children  not  only  without  generous  opportunities 
for  activity,  but  without  even  the  stimulus  of  an  adequate  char- 
acter-building companionship.  [  In  a  word,  modern  industrialism 
has  squeezed  the  educational  juice  out  of  the  home. 

And,  if  we  are  to  believe  social  workers,  the  squeezing  process 
will  continue.  Criticism  that  places  on  parents  the  blame  for 
their  failure  to  supply  educational  needs  which  the  home  sup- 
plied a  generation  ago,  misses  the  mark.  Speaking  broadly,  par- 
ents are  helpless.  Even  the  most  earnest  frequently  find  them- 
selves at  their  wits'  end  in  trying  to  meet  the  life  needs  of  their 
children.  The  masses  have  neither  training  for  the  problem, 
educational  resources  in  the  home,  nor  the  financial  ability  to 
meet  the  need  at  home  or  in  private  enterprises. 

With  the  continued  domination  of  industry  over  our  social 
life,  the  home  will  probably  be  less  and  less  able  to  fill  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  the  child  and  a  greater  gap  between  parental  life 
and  child  life  will  develop.  Adults  must  be  specialists  in  order 
to  be  efficient  and  they  must  struggle  for  leisure  in  order  to  have 
any  degree  of  completeness  in  life.     Both  these  conditions  and 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  ScJiool  of  1913.  259 

the  habits  of  adult  life  flowinsr  out  of  them  are  foreign  to  child 
nature  and  life.  So,  if  the  influence  of  industrialism  continues, 
the  gap  between  the  child  and  adult  is  bound  to  widen.  Like 
all  differentiations  in  the  organic  world,  the  greater  the  unlike- 
ness  the  greater  will  be  the  interdependence.  The  child  is  de- 
pendent upon  adult  resources  and  organizing  skill  in  order  that 
he  may  have  life;  and  the  adult,  who  is  to  be  the  product  of 
this  child-life,  is  dependent  upon  the  child's  living  his  complete 
life.  The  failure  to  supply  that  complete  life  gives  us  adults 
who  are  mere  cogs  in  the  wheel  of  a  complex  machine.  This  is 
the  social  educational  situation  even  now. 

Instead  of  the  home  and  its  immediate  environment  supplying 
practically  all  the  opportunities  for  the  child's  activities,  exper- 
iences and  expression,  these  functions  are  now  divided  among 
three  institutions — the  home,  the  school,  and  the  play-center. 

The  home  is  still  the  center  of  domestic  life,  though  even  in 
the  best  homes  it  is  greatly  narrowed  in  its  educational  possi- 
bilities. Many  homes  are  merely  places  in  which  to  sleep  and 
eat.  Though  they  still  have  great  educational  influence,  their 
educational  resources  are  practically  nil. 

The  school  has  absorbed  an  increasing  amount  of  the  child's 
time,  but  it  has  not,  except  in  a  few  cases  and  in  a  limited  way, 
even  attempted  to  supply  what  has  been  eliminated  from  child- 
life  by  modern  social  changes.  As  a  prominent  educator  puts 
it :  a  generation  ago,  a  boy  had  three  months '  schooling  and  nine 
months  in  which  to  get  an  education;  now  he  has  nine  months' 
schooling  and  three  months  in  which  to  gain  an  education.  Ac- 
tually, the  situation  is  even  worse ;  since  during  the  three  months 
he  has  few  opportunities  for  activities  that  educate. 

The  public  playground  is  coming  to  fill  the  need  for  educa- 
tional activity  and  experience  otherwise  limited  by  a  physical 
environment  that  is  unnatural,  and  a  social  one  that  is  complex 
and  specialized.  At  present,  most  playgrounds  are  inefficient, 
because  of  public  ignorance  as  to  their  functions  and  the  preva- 
lence of  poorly  trained  directors. 

The  public  playground  is  a  child's  community  social  center 
and  it  should  supply  and  does  now  supply,  under  expert  play 
directors,    not   only   the   space,   equipment   and   companionship 


260       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

which  are  beyond  the  economic  and  social  resources  of  the  home, 
but  the  adult  leadership  that  is  essential. 

Experience  has  shown  that  leadership  is  the  first  essential  of 
a  successful  playground,  for  three  groups  of  reasons : 

1.  The  playground  is  a  democratic  institution  open  to  all 
children ;  hence,  unless  directed,  apt  to  be  dominated  by  the  bully 
or  the  tough  gang.  It  concentrates  the  bad  manners,  antagon- 
isms and  vices  of  children ;  hence  it  is  apt  to  be  a  breeding  place 
for  evil  unless  in  charge  of  a  director  who  is  trained  to  convert 
these  very  tendencies  into  sources  of  moral  discipline. 

2.  The  playground  brings  together  a  large  miscellaneous 
group  of  children  of  different  ages,  temperaments,  social  train- 
ing, and  habits  of  play.  This  makes  the  play  organization  com- 
plex and  beyond  the  democratic  organizing  power  or  self-control 
of  children.  The  play  breaks  down  without  the  superior  skill 
and  control  of  the  adult  leader  who  may,  by  bridging  the  diffi- 
culties of  organization^  make  the  playground  the  most  efficient 
agency  in  existince  for  training  in  democratic  citizenship. 

3.  The  playground  is  an  institutional  center  for  child-life; 
a  substitute  for  certain  educational  functions  of  the  home,  which 
the  home  can  no  longer  perform  adequately.  The  supervision 
formerly  supplied  by  the  parents  in  activities  in  which  they 
were  experts  can  no  longer  be  supplied  in  the  new  activities. 
Few  parents  can  be  experts  in  child  nature  or  the  technique  of 
a  vast  variety  of  activities  that  satisfy  the  progressive  educa- 
tional needs  of  children.  This  function  must  be  taken  over  in 
its  large  and  difficult  phases  by  the  professionally  trained  leader. 
His  influence  should  radiate  from  his  center  of  business  into  the 
surrounding  community,  the  home,  and  the  school.  Since  the 
playground  is  a  laboratory  of  conduct  and  its  activities  are  the 
foundation  for  a  modern  democratic  system  of  moral  education, 
the  director  becomes  the  main  influence  for  efficiency  in  this 
highest  phase  of  education. 

As  the  home  approaches  the  apartment  type  and  the  family 
the  one-child  type,  under  the  pressure  of  modern  social  conditions, 
the  relative  importance  of  the  play-center  and  school  increases. 

In  this  social  situation  child  welfare  requires  a  new  spirit 
and  a  new  organization  of  the  school  and  playground.     Both 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  261 

are  extra-home  institutional  centers  of  child-life  and  both  exhibit 
the  inefficiency  of  an  incomplete  organization 

As  the  playground  is  a  center  of  life  and  education  organ- 
ized from  the  child's  standpoint,  and  the  school  is  a  center  of 
child  experience  and  education  organized  from  society's  stand- 
point, the  two  institutions  should  be  combined  to  unite  the  two 
points  of  view,  and  unify  the  child's  educational  experience.  It 
is  not  sufficient  that  a  playground  space  be  added  to  the  school 
or  that  a  group  of  manual  or  other  activities  be  added  to  the 
games  of  the  playground.  The  play  center  and  the  school  center 
must  become  one  in  spirit,  aim  and  organization. 

A  triangular  division  of  child-life  under  three  classes  of 
institutions  and  the  dual  organization  of  extra-home  activities 
are  inefficient,  not  only  educationally,  but  administratively.  Ex- 
perience has  shown  that  children  in  cities  will  not  or  cannot  go 
more  than  one-quarter  or  one-half  mile  to  a  play-center.  There- 
fore, the  provision  of  adequate  playgrounds  within  reach  of  every 
city  child,  and  the  organization  of  a  staff  of  leaders,  under  some 
municipal  administrative  body  apart  from  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, puts  a  double  burden  upon  the  taxpayers. 

So  far  as  the  small  town  and  country  are  concerned,  few 
would  suggest,  after  the  recent  campaign  for  a  wider  use  of  the 
.  school  plant,  that  a  play-center  should  be  located  anywhere  except 
at  the  school ;  still,  where  they  have  been  so  located,  the  functions 
of  the  play-center  and  the  functions  of  the  school  have  not  been 
identified. 

The  public  school  is  the  institution  concerned  with  the  edu- 
cation of  the  child;  it  must  provide  all  his  extra-home  educational 
activities  if  its  functions  are  to  be  efficiently  realized.  As  indi- 
cated before,  this  is  a  different  problem  from  the  recreation  of 
the  adult. 

New  Educational  Movements  and  the  Play  School  Idea 

Social  progress  has  changed  not  onlj-  the  relationships  be- 
tween the  home  and  the  play  center  and  the  school,  but  it  has 
brought  a  new  social  conscience  concerning  education.  We  are 
in  a  period  of  educational  discontent,  restlessness  and  experi- 
mentation— a  part  of  the  general  social  discontent.     Every  man 


262       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

who  thinks  and  who  is  sensitive  to  the  spirit  of  the  time  reacts 
upon  the  educational  situation  and  usually  has  some  "new" 
idea  or  variation  of  the  educational  programme.  Several  new 
types  of  school  and  a  generous  number  of  new  educational  efforts, 
both  without  and  within  the  public  school  system,  have  been 
organized  and  promoted  sufficiently  to  attract  public  notice. 

Of  the  new  types  of  school  one  or  two  are  significant.  First, 
there  is  the  vacation  school,  which  is  successful  from  the  stand- 
point of  child  welfare  and  child  interest.  But  it  is  simply  a 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  child's  education  is  going  on 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year  and  that  the  school 
must  replace  the  home  and  community  in  supplying  opportunity 
for  experience. 

Then  there  are  the  open-air  schools,  which  have  proved  that 
our  ''model"  ventilating  schemes  are  delusions  and  that  the  most 
rational  way  to  ventilate  a  school  is  to  do  away  with  most  of  the 
school  walls.  Now  we  are  about  to  see  the  time-worn  school  idea 
run  its  vicious  circle  again.  "Adequate  provision"  is  to  be  made 
for  children  "needing"  the  fresh-air  school.  So  (according  to 
the  programme)  masses  of  children  will  be  kept  indoors  to  be 
devitalized  and  subjected  to  a  string  of  diseases  with  their  train 
of  adult  weaknesses,  while  the  tubercular  and  the  anaemic  will 
have  the  privilege  (until  they  get  well)  of  the  only  type  of  school 
any  child  ought  to  have. 

Ayers  says  that  the  open-air  school  wnll  take  its  place  in  the 
history  of  education  as  marking  one  long  step  toward  that  school 
system  of  the  future  in  which  the  child  will  not  have  to  be  either 
feeble-minded  or  delinquent  or  truant  or  tubercular  in  order  to 
enjoy  the  best  and  fullest  sorts  of  educational  opportunity.  Even 
in  the  colder  sections  of  the  country  and  during  the  severest 
winters,  children  can  be  made  comfortable  in  the  open  air  most 
of  the  day  and  for  most  of  their  activities.  Until  this  common- 
sense  standard  is  realized,  school  hygiene  will  progress  with  one 
leg  paralyzed. 

Significant  for  the  future  of  the  open-air  school  is  the  wide- 
spread rebellion  among  parents  against  putting  their  children 
in  the  public  schools  because  they  "will  be  shut  indoors"  or  be- 
cause they  are  "never  well."     Naturally,  a  large  number  of 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Plaij  School  of  1913.  263 

private  outdoor  schools  are  catering  to  this  sentiment.  Closely 
associated  is  the  organization  of  country  day  schools,  such  as 
exist  in  Buffalo  and  Minneapolis,  indicating  that  well-to-do  par- 
ents are  willing  to  pay  high  rates  of  tuition  to  have  their  boys 
go  to  the  country  each  day. 

Several  new  movements  are  strikingly  significant  of  the  trend 
in  educational  organization.  Most  of  these  are  focused  on  the 
adolescent,  yet  the  principles  involved  and  their  solution  extend 
into  the  pre-adolescent  period.  Conspicuous  among  these  move- 
ments is  that  of  the  Boy  Scouts,  with  its  highly  elaborated  pro- 
gramme of  activites  and  honors  for  achievements.  This  organiz- 
ation and  that  of  the  Campfire  Girls  are  phases  of  the  great 
movement  for  directed  play  and  leisure  time.  They  have  arisen 
and  attracted  public  attention  because  of  the  widespread  feeling 
that  masses  of  children  are  growing  up  incapable,  resourceless, 
and  irresponsible.  Hence  the  new  devotion  to  a  programme  for 
achievement  as  a  means  of  character  development. 

The  Junior  Eepublic,  boys'  cities,  civic  activities  and  respons- 
ibilities for  boys,  all  indicate  the  rising  social  consciousness  that 
children  have  their  own  sense  of  values  and  responsibility.  This 
sense  is  just  beginning  to  be  organized  for  educational  purposes. 
Increasingly  as  the  years  progress,  the  imagination  is  stirred  by 
the  relationship  between  approaching  adulthood  and  the  adult's 
activities.  Since  the  results  depend  upon  leadership,  we  have  a 
host  of  social  problems  rising  out  of  our  past  neglect. 

Some  of  the  "new  schools,"  however,  in  which  "real  work" 
is  the  central  idea  of  the  programme,  have  failed  to  achieve  their 
ideals  because  the  programmes  are  based  on  ignorance  of  child 
nature  or  on  the  old  notions  of  play  or  "work"  that  is  a  mere 
imitation  of  specialized  adult  occupations.  Where  these  efforts 
have  succeeded,  especially  for  the  younger  children,  leaders  have 
organized  "play"  instead  of  "work,"  without  knowing  it. 

The  gardening  movement,  geography  excursions,  and  the  shift 
in  nature  study  from  that  of  plucked  and  dissected  symbols  to 
a  study  of  nature  in  action — changing,  growing,  eating,  repro- 
ducing, struggling  nature  with  all  its  vital  human  relationships — 
all  these  activities  emphasize  the  fact  that  "learning"  must  be 
a  part  of  life  and  built  on  vitalizing,  mind-filling  experience. 


264       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education,   [^ol.  5 

The  focal  point  of  thought  in  these  movements  drifts  toward 
the  organization  of  the  child's  whole  life-experience  on  a  con- 
crete laboratory  basis.    It  involves  a  recognition  of  child  capac- 
ities and  needs  previously  furnished  in  natural  contacts  with  a  ' 
simple  adult  life  now  passed  away. 

Vocational  training  and  guidance  are  receiving  their  empha- 
sis. Adjustment  for  the  masses  is  the  aim,  but  vocational  ad- 
justment is  only  one  phase  of  life — the  adjustment  of  the  adult. 
Avocational  or  recreational  adjustment,  social  adjustment,  citi- 
zenship adjustment  and  domestic  adjustment  are  co-ordinate, 
and  they  all  depend  upon  the  developmental  or  educational  ad- 
justment during  the  years  of  growth.  Obviously  shallow  is  a 
vocational  training  and  guidance  that  is  not  based  on  educational 
provisions  that  allow  the  child  all  his  early  years  for  enthusiastic 
living  and  achieving  until  the  work  mechanism  is  established 
and  talents,  interests,  or  capacities  are  developed;  and  until 
expert  leaders  who  are  guiding  this  living  process  may  discover 
individual  tendencies  and  adaptabilities.  Furthermore,  a  voca- 
tional training  that  is  not  based  on  organic,  nervous,  intellectual 
and  moral  development  and  that  is  not  co-ordinated  with  a  social 
and  recreative  adjustment  and  a  preparation  for  citizenship  and 
domestic  life  adjustment,  is  bound  to  produce  workers  that  are 
but  inflexible  cogs  in  the  wheel  of  a  gigantic  machine  which  will 
inhibit  both  individual  and  social  progress. 

The  new  efforts  for  backward  and  exceptional  children  reveal 
the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  our  wonderful  school  mechanism 
has  failed  in  results  for  great  masses  of  children.  The  conscious- 
ness is  growing  that  the  universal  "child"  when  differentiated 
into  individuals  is  as  variable  as  the  number  of  children  and 
that  each  must  be  educated  in  a  variable  and  adaptable  pro- 
gramme. This  is  perfectly  practical  when  activities  rather  than 
subjects  of  study  are  organized. 

The  campaign  for  school  hygiene  has  become  almost  hysterical. 
Accumulating  evidence  has  shown  the  physical,  mental  and  moral 
effects  of  long  hours,  confinement  and  over-pressure  in  mental 
work.  Nevertheless,  there  is  a  demand  for  a  broader  manual 
training,  a  larger  nature-study,  a  fuller  "physical  education" 
and  an  efficient  moral  education — all  interpreted  as  "subjects  of 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  265 

study"  and  added  to  the  old  subjects;  together  with  new  phases 
of  the  arts,  sciences  and  literature  pushed  by  a  variety  of  indi- 
viduals from  the  viewpoint  of  their  own  adult  specialized  in- 
terests. 

Consequently,  school  hygiene  will  come  out  of  the  same  door 
wherein  it  entered,  so  far  as  its  larger  functions  are  concerned, 
unless  child-life  is  put  squarely  on  its  two  hygienic  legs  in  school 
organization:  the  one,  an  open-air  life;  and  the  other,  a  pro- 
gramme of  activities  instead  of  subjects  of  study. 

Our  educational  fetish,  the  three  R's,  blocks  the  way.  Cer- 
tainly children  must  acquire  the  tools  of  a  cultural  adjustment; 
but  is  the  learning  to  read  and  write  and  count  at  an  early  age 
more  sacred  than  the  health  of  our  children  and  an  enthusiasm 
in  life  that  gives  capacity  to  live  and  work  efficiently  ?  At  pres\ 
ent,  the  danger  is  that  the  fetish  will  be  imposed  at  five  or  even  \  ^ 

four  years  of  age  and  some  few  children  are  able  to  learp.  to  \  [y^ 
read  and  write  during  these  tender  years,  for  the  edification  oi/ 
ambitious  teachers  and  vain  parents.  The  point  is  not  what 
some  children  can  do,  nor  that  they  should  not  learn  these  essen- 
tials of  a  cultural  adjustment  during  childhood.  It  is  that  to 
make  reading  and  writing  a  requirement  to  which  all  other 
activities  are  subordinated,  say  up  to  the  child's  ninth  year,  is 
insupportable  from  a  broad  educational  standpoint. 

The  time  has  come  when  men  are  beginning  to  realize  that 
the  stifling  of  the  child's  developing  enthusiasms  in  life  through 
a  back-warping,  chest-cramping,  nerve-breaking,  mind-deadening 
desk  and  schoolroom  programme  of  "studies"  is  as  cruel  as  the 
Spanish  Inquisition. 

The  tendencies  noted  point  to  the  solution.     All  the  vital 
special  desires  in  education  can  be  met — ^the  overcrowding  elimi- 
nated, the  programme  increased  to  eight,  ten,  or  twelve  hours  a 
day  and  through  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year,  . 
the  present  injury  to  health  replaced  by  a  positive  construction  ; 
of  vital  and  nervous  powers  of  which  health  is  an  index,  moral  ^ 
education  placed  squarely  on  a  laboratory  basis,  with  each  child 
treated  as  an  individual  as  well  as  a  creature  to  be  socialized,  and 
the  "learning"  increased  both  in  quantity  and  quality — by  rein- 
terpreting the  school  as  an  open-air,  educationally  fused  play 


266       University  of  Calif ornia Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.5 

and  school  center;  and  by  shifting  the  emphasis  in  the  school 
programme  from  subjects  of  study  to  the  organization  of  activ- 
ities which  evolve  with  the  aid  of  leadership  into  specialized, 
adult  interests. 

This  solution,  as  indicated  by  the  effect  of  recent  social 
changes  on  educational  practice,  is  also  demanded  by  the  social 
changes  to  come.  Society  has  reached  the  age  of  Human  Engi- 
neering, with  child  education  as  its  foundation.  The  knowledge 
and  skill  are  at  hand.  In  the  past,  man's  human  engineering 
efforts  were  confined  to  correction  and  cure;  medicine  was  the 
dominant  human  engineering  science.  In  recent  years  we  have 
learned  how  to  prevent  many  individual  and  social  ills.  The 
sciences  of  prevention  are  now  dominant  and  "hygiene"  is  in 
the  air.  But  a  new  thought  is  already  here — constructive  effort. 
Social  correction  and  medicine  are  still  advancing,  prevention 
is  commanding  public  opinion,  but  both  are  more  or  less  futile 
without  a  foundation  of  constructive  engineering.  And  educa- 
tion is  the  core  of  all  constructive  engineering  which  deals  with 
the  individual. 

Education  is  now  the  dominant  science,  the  source  of  appeal 
in  all  social  effort,  as  well  as  in  the  efficient  adjustment  of  the 
j  individual.  Of  the  three  forces  determining  what  any  individual 
shall  be  at  maturity — heredity,  activity,  and  environment — with 
the  three  corresponding  sciences — eugenics,  education,  and  social 
economy — activity  alone  is  the  source  of  power  in  the  individual 
after  birth.  The  environment  sets  conditions  for  activity,  there- 
fore influences  result;  but  activity  itself  is  the  developer  of  all 
power,  and  education  the  science  of  constructive  effort  with  the 
individual.  Old,  neglected,  despised  Education  has  become  the 
new  inspiration  in  Human  Engineering. 

Even  the  universities  feel  the  new  responsibility  of  education, 
and  schools  of  education  are  arising,  still  dominated  by  the  old 
narrow  ideas  of  education  as  an  intellectual  process,  but  destined 
to  fulfill  their  real  function :  producing  engineers  of  child-life 
and  child  adjustment  to  meet  the  requirements  of  an  advancing 
civilization.    This  is  the  hope  for  democracy  and  civilization. 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  ScJiool  of  1913.  267 

3.  The  Play  School  a  Reinterpreted  School 
The  Play  School  is  proposed  as  the  next  step  in  the  evolution 
of  the  elementary  school.  (1)  It  is  suggested  as  the  extra-home 
institutional  center  of  child-life  in  which  the  school  and  the  play- 
ground are  educationally  fused  and  their  aims  identified;  and 
where  the  child's  whole  daily  active  life,  not  supervised  by  the  7 
parents,  shall  be  spent,  through  the  entire  year  from  early  in- 
fancy until  the  capacity  to  work  consciously  for  adjustment  has 
been  established.  (2)  It  is  proposed  as  a  center  in  which  chil- 
dren shall  learn  to  live  and  to  work  with  enthusiasm,  by  living 
completely  in  their  activities  which  include  the  whole  physical 
and  social  environment  and  are  organized  to  satisfy  fully  the 
child's  hungers  for  experience  and  self  expression.  (3)  It  is 
proposed  as  a  center  for  complete  leadership,  where  the  interest 
is  centered  in  the  child,  not  in  subjects  of  study. 

The  aims  of  the  Play  School  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

1.  To  organize  the  opportunity  for  a  complete  play-life  in 
order  that  the  child  may  develop  his  powers,  learn  the  meaning 
of  his  environment  and  discover  himself. 

2.  To  furnish  leadership  for  the  fundamental  activities  in 
order  that  organic,  nervous  and  volitional  powers  for  activity 
with  enthusiasm  and  the  capacity  for  work  may  be  established. 

3.  To  connect  the  play  tendencies  and  interests  with  materials 
for  activity  that  will  feed  and  develop  stable  interests ;  and  then 
connect  these  interests  with  the  resources  of  socid^,  especially 
literature. 

4.  To  secure  close  observation,  clear  thinking,  skilled  exe- 
cution and  free  linguistic  expression  in  connection  with  all 
activities. 

5.  To  mold  the  instinctive  and  emotional  reactions  in  all 
activities  in  order  that  sound  moral  habits,  moral  judgment  and 
social  ideals  may  be  established  and  come  to  control  all  developing 
powers  for  complete  adult  adjustment. 

D.  The  Problem  and  Analysis  of  Activities 
The  proposal  to  organize  activities  instead  of  subjects  of  study 
shifts  the  practical  problem  in  education  to  the  study  of  activities 
and  the  educational  leadership  of  these  activities. 


/ 


268       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

Educators  have  been  devoted  to  the  investigation  of  methods 
of  teaching  special  subjects  of  study.  They  have  spent  relatively 
little  time  in  studying  the  nature  or  the  function  of  the  child's 
spontaneous  life  activities  and  the  relation  of  these  activities  to 
his  development — organic,  nervous,  intellectual  and  moral — or 
to  his  adjustment.  Leadership  in  the  organization  of  activities 
requires  a  knowledge  and  skill  that  makes  the  organized  activities 
as  natural  as  the  unorganized,  hut  more  certain  of  educational 
results. 

The  child's  activities  may  be  studied  from  many  standpoints, 
of  which  the  following  are  examples : 

1.  From  the  standj)oiiit  of  the  motor-mechanism  used — 

The  locomotor,  or  big-muscle  mechanism, 
The  manual,  or  small-muscle  mechanism. 
The  vocal  and  linguistic  mechanism, 
The  sense-attention  mechanism,  etc. 

2.  Prom  the  standpoint  of  the  regulating  process  involved — 

The  instinctive  and  emotional  processes, 
The  intellectual  processes. 

3.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  initial  sources  of  the  activities — 

(a)  The  hungers;  organic  hungers  and  needs  for  food,  and  the 
psycho-motor  hungers  for  activity,  experience,  and  ex- 
pression, or 

(ft)   The  stimuli  of  sense  situations. 

4.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  genesis  of  the  form  of  activities  with 

interests,  motives,  beliefs,  habits — 
The  hungers, 
The  instincts, 

Experience  as  a  result  of  reactions  upon  environmental  situations. 
Imitation, 
Conscious  judgment. 

5.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  educational  results   or  values   of   the 

activities — 

(a)  For  the  development  of  the  organism — 

Organic  development  with  a  system  of  habits, 
Nervous  development  with  a  system  of  habits, 
Intinctive  and  emotional  development  with  a  system  of 

habits. 
Intellectual   development  with  a   system  of  habits  and 

ideas,  and 


1914]  Hetherington.—TJie  Plaij  School  of  1913.  269 

(&)   For   the   adjustment   of  the   organism   to   phases   of   racial 
activity  and  culture — 
Economic,  or  vocational  adjustment, 
Recreative,  or  avocational  adjustment. 
Fellowship  adjustment. 
Citizenship  adjustment, 
Domestic  adjustment. 

6.  From  the  standpoint  of  a  practical  educational  leadership  of  the  activ- 
ities for  complete  child  living. 


All  these  points  of  view  are  important  in  the  investigation  of 
activity  and  in  the  training  of  the  leader  or  teacher,  but  for  the 
practical  problems  of  educational  leadership  the  last  point  of 
view  is  essential  and  may  include  all  others.  It  is  distinctly  the 
leader's  or  teacher's  viewpoint.  It  demands  a  classification  of 
the  child's  activities  that  gives  the  more  or  less  distinct  but 
natural  phases  of  his  complete  active  life;  and  that  makes  it 
possible  to  administer  his  complete  living.  This  classification  is 
essential  further  as  a  basis  for  the  organization  of  a  progressive 
educational  "curriculum"  of  activities: 

1st.  That  will  use  all  the  mechanisms  and  regulating  pro- 
cesses. 

2nd.  That  will  feed  all  the  hungers,  provide  for  reactions 
upon  the  whole  environment  and  give  opportunity  for  full  ex- 
pression of  all  valuable  budding  interests. 

3rd.  That  will  hold  true  all  through  childhood,  tending  to 
evolve  naturally  into  the  racial  forms  of  activity,  and 

4th.     That  will  give  all  the  educational  values. 

All  those  demands  seem  to  be  realized  tentatively  in  the  fol- 
lowing classification:  (a)  Big-muscle  activities;  (6)  manipulat- 
ing and  manual  activities;  (c)  environmental  and  nature  activ- 
ity; (d)  dramatic  activities;  (e)  rhythmic  and  musical  activities; 
(/)  social  activities;  (g)  vocal  and  linguistic  activities;  and  (h) 
economic  activities. 

Description  of  the  Activities 
A  description  of  each  of  these  groups  of  activities  will  make 
its  educational  meaning  and  the  whole  classification  clear.     No 


270       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

significance,  except  one  of  convenience  in  description,  is  attached 
to  the  order  of  the  groups  as  given. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  activities  in  each  group  begin 
early  and  continue  through  childhood;  that  they  arise  out  of 
some  hunger,  instinct  or  innate  capacity  in  human  nature;  that 
these  same  traits  have  given  rise  to  some  phase  of  racial  life  or 
culture ;  and  that  each  group  has  some  special  value  in  the  devel- 
opment and  adjustment  of  the  child. 

The  Big-Muscle  activities  are  fundamental  to  all  the  activ- 
ities. They  arise  out  of  the  primary  hungers  for  activity ;  begin 
in  the  random  movements  of  the  infant;  develop  through  the 
various  stages  of  locomotion  and  diverge  during  childhood  under 
the  influence  of  special  instincts  into  stich  special  forms  as  gym- 
nastics, games,  dancing  and  athletics. 

1.  Gymnastic  Plays  arise  from  the  self -testing  impulse.  They 
are  personal  motor  achievement  plays  and  express  the  enthusiasm 
for  self-realization. 

2.  The  Dancing  activities  add  pleasure  in  rhythm.  They 
begin  in  spontaneous  forms  and  take  on  traditional  forms  through 
imitation,  developing  the  sense  of  rhythm  as  well  as  the  capacity 
for  artistic  expression  in  body  movements.  They  also  have  deep 
social  meanings  and  influences,  especially  during  the  adolescent 
years. 

3.  Games  and  Athletics  arise  from  the  hunting  and  self- 
protecting  instincts  and  from  the  gregarious,  egoistic  and  fight- 
ing instincts  which  find  expression  in  rivalry,  and  which  have 
been  such  powerful  forces  in  the  rise  of  civilization.  These 
instincts  develop  progressively  in  games  of  fleeing,  chasing, 
hiding,  seeking,  capturing  and  escaping,  and  later,  team  games 
of  conquest. 

These  big-muscle  activities  are  the  developers  of  the  organic 
powers  and  the  fundamental  nervous  powers;  i.e.,  they  are  the 
ediicational  source  of  vigor,  resistance  to  disease  and  general 
nervoiLS  vitality  and  skill.  They  lay  the  foundation  in  the  adult 
for  the  capacity  to  labor.  They  establish  wholesome  forms  of 
recreation.  While  regarded  usually  as  mere  muscular  exercises 
or  "pastimes,"  these  activities,  especially  the  games,  carry  the 
discipline  of  the  racially  old  instincts  at  the  foundation  of  char- 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  271 

acter,  and  are  therefore  primarily  instinct  educators  and  funda- 
mental in  their  influence  on  character  development.  They  carry 
the  "social  spirit"  and  discipline  the  social  instincts,  emotions, 
and  enthusiasm.  Hence  in  the  education  of  children  they  must 
be  given  a  large  place  and  be  guided  carefully  as  the  most 
important  laboratory  activities  in  the  moral  phase  of  education. 

The  Manipulating  and  Manual  Activities  arise  out  of  the 
manipulating  impulse  which  satisfies  the  himgers  for  activity  and 
sense  experience.  Gradually,  under  the  influence  of  the  "con- 
structive" impulse,  imitation  and  self-expreasion,  the  various 
manual  activities  arise.  These  tendencies  in  human  nature,  cou- 
pled with  needs  for  food,  protection  and  expression,  have  devel- 
oped the  industrial  enterprises  and  graphic  arts  of  man.  In 
the  child  they  begin  in  general  manipulation,  expanding  along 
the  lines  of  construction  with  blocks  and  miscellaneous  materials ; 
modeling,  scribbling,  drawing,  coloring;  and  then  construction 
with  tools  in  paper,  wood,  stone  and  iron,  and  in  plastic  materials, 
textiles,  foods,  etc.  When  the  child  expresses  esthetic  feelings 
and  ideas  in  these  activities  the  manual  arts  appear.  This  manip- 
ulating impulse,  combined  with  the  social,  gives  a  large  number 
of  plays  and  games.  Each  of  these  tendencies  is  represented  in 
the  complex  occupations,  crafts,  arts,  modes  of  expression  and 
recreations  of  the  adult.  They  give  the  spontaneous  beginnings 
of  activities  which,  when  developed,  include  a  large  part  of 
applied  science. 

Under  leadership  the  values  of  these  activities  in  the  develop- 
ment of  nervous  powers  for  manvial  skill,  in  the  ability  to  think 
in  mechanical  terms  and  to  design  and  execute,  in  the  expression 
of  esthetic  ideas  and  the  development  of  esthetic  feelings  and  in 
the  discipline  of  elemental  traits  of  character,  are  well  recognized. 
As  Dewey  showed,  they  may  be  organized  to  unite  the  individual's 
social  feelings  and  thoughts  with  the  industrial  problems  of  the 
race.  For  the  masses  they  underlie  economic  adjustment  and 
industrial  adaptability.  They  are  important  for  the  nervous, 
moral  and  esthetic  stability  of  the  non-industrial  classes.  y^ 

Leadership   in   these   activities   is   needed   from   infancy   to  v    y 
maturit}^,  first  for  cultural  education,  then  for  vocational  and 
recreative  results.     In  this  leadership,  the  ages  between  seven 


272       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education,   l^^l.  5 

and  ten — the  critical,  yet  most  neglected  years — when  impulse 
and  skill  are  furthest  apart,  need  special  attention. 

Environmental  and  Nature  Activities  fall  into  two  related 
classes:   (1)   excursions  and   (2)   nature  experimentations.     The 
V       instincts  that  have  led  to  the  world's  exploration  and  to  the 
\      development  of  the  natural  and  physical  sciences  are  here  ex- 
pressed. 

(1)  The  excursions  arise  from  the  exploring,  foraging  and 
migratory  instincts  and  arouse  great  enthusiasm.  They  begin 
with  the  creeping  of  the  infant  and  continue  all  through  environ- 
mental activities  of  later  years.  These  excursions  give  some  of 
"^"  the  organic  and  nervous  values  of  big-muscle  activities;  they 
develop  the  self-preserving  instincts  and  powers;  they  give  the 
opportunities  for  observation,  the  collection  of  information,  and 
the  satisfaction  of  curiosity  concerning  nature  and  civics.  Lead- 
ership easily  perfects  the  educational  values  in  the  spontaneous 
tendencies  to  these  activities,  as  indicated  in  the  following  sug- 
gestions which  grade  naturally  by  age  periods. 

For  the  little  children,  short  trips  give  opportunities  for 
broader  "free  play"  activities  in  the  environment,  for  a  larger 
sense  experience,  for  collections,  for  learning  the  names  of  nat- 
ural objects,  for  simple  observational  games  and  for  instruction 
concerning  things  which  catch  the  attention. 

For  the  larger  children  excursions  cover  the  three  ideas  of 
adventure,  nature  observation  and  civic  observation  as  follows: 
(a)  half-day  "hikes"  or  week-end  camping  trips,  including  out- 
ing or  "scouting"  arts;  (&)  trips  to  the  fields,  woods,  and  bodies 
of  water,  or  to  farms,  or  to  plant  or  animal  experimental  stations 
with  observations  on  the  geographical  features,  on  plants  and 
animals  and  their  breeding  processes  with  collections,  maps,  etc. ; 
(c)  trips  to  industrial  and  commercial  institutions,  to  historic 
places,  to  civic  institutions  and  centers,  to  public-service  centers, 
etc.,  each  with  investigations.  From  these  natural  activities  the 
larger  geography  expands. 
V  (2)  The  second  half  of  the  environmental  and  Nature  activ- 
ities, nature  experimentations,  arise  from  curiosity  about  nature 
and  the  experimental  manipulation  of  natural  forces.  They  fall 
into  three  groups : 


1914]  Hetheringtmi.—TJie  Play  School  of  1913.  273 

(a)  There  is  playing  and  experimenting  with  physical 
nature:*  namely,  playing  with  water,  air,  heat,  mechanical  de- 
vices, sound,  light  and  electricity.  These  activities  begin  in  the 
same  manipulating  tendencies  that  are  the  foundation  of  the 
manual  activities,  but  diverge  under  the  control  of  different 
instincts.  They  grade  naturally  by  age  periods  and  through 
leadership  develop  problems  in  physics. 

(&)  There  is  playing  and  experimenting  with  animals; 
namely,  playing  with  pets;  feeding  and  caring  for  animals; 
training  them,  capturing,  raising  and  taming  wild  animals; 
breeding  animals,  etc. 

(c)  There  is  playing  and  experimenting  with  plant  nature; 
namely,  planting,  raising  and  earing  for  plants  and  flowers; 
experimental  gardening  to  find  out  what  nature  will  do  and  also 
for  the  economic  value  of  the  produce. 

These  two  latter  groups  of  nature  activities  with  the  field 
observation  and  collections  give  all  the  essential  elements  in  the 
relations  of  plants  and  animals  to  the  life  of  man,  and  give, 
through  leadership,  the  natural  basis  and  enthusiastic  interest 
in  the  problem  of  nature  study  and  "civic  biology." 


*  The  content  of  these  physical  experimental  plays  will  be  better 
illustrated  by  the  following  outline: 

Water — Playing  with  water,  pouring,  wading,  splashing,  watching 
objects  in  water,  throwing  objects  into  water,  building  dams  and  water 
wheels,  watching  the  action  of  water  on  land,  "erosion  models,"  etc., 
which  develop  problems  in  fluids. 

Air — Playing  with  air,  sail-boats,  kites,  windmills,  aeroplanes,  which 
develop  problems  in  air  pressure,  air  currents,  wind,  temperature,  humid- 
ity, rainfall,  etc. 

Heat — Watching  fire,  making  fires,  observing  friction  and  heat,  play- 
ing with  toy  steam  engines,  thermometers,  which  develop  problems  in 
heat,  combustion,  expansion  and  contraction  and  other  effects  of  heat. 

Mechanical  Devices — Playing  with  hoops,  tops,  pulleys,  wheels,  toy 
machines,  gyroscopes,  pendulums,  levers,  watching  thrown  objects,  balanc- 
ing objects,  etc.,  which  develop  problems  in  motor  dynamics. 

Sound — Vocalization,  beating  and  drumming,  blowing  on  toy  instru- 
ments, "listening  to  shells,"  speaking-tubes  and  telephones,  experiment- 
ing with  conduction  through  air,  water  and  timbers,  with  vibrating  bodies, 
echoes,  etc.,  which  develop  problems  in  vibration,  noises,  tones,  music,  etc. 

Light — Playing  with  reflectors,  mirrors,  prisms,  lenses,  water  refrac- 
tion, glasses,  telescopes,  which  develop  problems  in  light,  color,  optics, 
time,  etc. 

Electricity — Experimenting  and  playing  with  magnets,  batteries,  induc- 
^n  coils,  telephones,  telegraph  instruments,  dynamos,  electric  motors, 
electric  lights,  etc.,  which  present  problems  in  electrodynamics. 


274       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [^o\.  5 

The  specialized  sciences  have  no  place  in  child  life.  These 
nature  activities  give  what  is  natural  to  child  life  and  interest, 
and  lay  the  foundation  for  a  more  advanced  study  later. 

Dramatic  Activities  arise  out  of  the  imitative  and  dramatic 
tendencies  and  the  hungers  to  experience  the  form  and  content 
of  conduct  and  express  environmental  situations.  In  the  adult 
these  tendencies  and  hungers  have  developed  the  dramatic  arts. 
In  the  little  child  dramatization  intensifies  ideas  and  bears  the 
same  relationship  to  an  appreciation  of  conduct  that  manipula- 
tion bears  to  knowledge  of  physical  nature.  The  child  interprets 
conduct  through  his  own  motor  activities  and  later  expresses  an 
ideal.  In  all  classes  of  children  these  activities  grip  the  imagi- 
nation. They  correlate  and  give  added  zest  to  other  phases  of 
activity.  Under  leadership  they  plant  rich  associations  that  give 
immediate  educational  values  and  help  develop  the  capacity  for 
some  of  the  higher  recreative  arts  in  the  adult. 

Leadership  for  the  little  children  should  supply  opportunities 
for  a  broad  range  of  imitative  dramatization  of  single,  social, 
and  environmental  situations.  For  the  larger  children,  leader- 
ship should  be  given  in  the  dramatization  of  social  situations, 
in  the  construction  of  plots  from  stories  and  history,  in  the  use 
and  adaptation  of  plays  and  in  the  development  of  simple  page- 
ants. These  latter  forms  of  dramatization  will  lead  towards  the 
celebration  of  holidays. 

Rhythmic  and  Musical  Activities  arise  out  of  vocal  and  man- 
ual experimentations  and  the  pleasures  derived  from  rhythm, 
tone,  and  melody.  These  pleasures  with  their  emotional  relation- 
ships have  created  the  musical  arts  of  man.  In  the  child,  rhyth- 
mic and  musical  activities  begin  in  crude  vocalization,  bodily 
movements,  and  drummings  and  develop  through  various  stages 
of  complexity.  There  are  (1)  bodily  rhythms,  as  running,  stamp- 
ing, marching,  skipping,  etc.,  up  to  dancing;  (2)  vocal  rhythms 
and  tones,  as  counting,  repeating  sounds  and  tones,  up  to  poetry 
and  singing;  (3)  drummings  and  beatings  with  sticks,  fingers 
or  cans,  picking  sounds  on  strings  and  blowing  sounds  on  bottles 
or  shells,  up  to  the  use  of  drums,  cymbals  and  string  or  wind 
instruments. 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  275 

These  are  all  music  activities  to  the  child,  but  the  music  of 
the  race  is  highly  evolved,  and  it  has  a  complex  written  language. 
It  is  a  simple  matter  to  organize  the  musical  activities  charac- 
teristic of  each  age  period,  but  the  transition  to  the  musical  activ- 
ities of  the  racial  type  or  to  an  appreciation  of  these  is  achieved 
for  the  masses  only  through  a  broad  association  or  skilled  leader- 
ship. Individuals  differ  enormously  in  musical  capacities.  All 
children  should  have  their  musical  impulses  developed  to  the 
point  of  adjustment  in  the  community  social  recreative  life. 

In  the  transition  three  methods  of  leadership  or  instruction 
are  possible:  (1)  The  natural  musical  activities  of  the  child  may 
be  organized  and  led  into  the  racial  type;  (2)  the  gap  may  be 
bridged  through  play  methods  of  instruction;  or  (3)  music  may 
be  interpreted  as  a  formal  subject  of  study  that  can  be  taught 
only  by  formal  methods  under  the  discipline  of  instruction.  The 
last  is  the  traditional  method  and  essential  for  any  advanced 
skill.  The  second  method  secures  results  especially  with  the 
little  children.  The  first  method  is  used  frequently  in  boys '  clubs 
and  in  the  organization  of  children's  orchestras.^  It  has  been 
highly  refined  on  one  side  for  training  in  rhythm  by  Dalcroze.® 
This  method  has  back  of  it  the  power  of  instinct,  it  opens  the 
channels  of  natural  development  to  leadership,  it  can  be  supple- 
mented by  all  other  methods  as  desired. 

Social  Activities  arise  out  of  the  social  instincts  and  hungers. 
These  instincts  have  amalgamated  all  human  instincts  for  the 
development  of  society.  Their  expression  in  the  child  gives  social 
experience  and  they  frequently  take  the  form  of  experimentation 
with  human  nature. 

The  play  school  is  a  child's  social  center.  In  addition  to  the 
social  life  involved  in  each  group  of  activities,  there  is  a  general 
social  life  and  spirit.  All  the  social  relationships  of  the  special 
activities  are  looped  up  in  this  larger  social  unity.  It  involves 
all  human  relationships  in  the  school  and  it  radiates  into  the 
social  environment  and  the  home.  In  these  social  activities  are 
expressed  all  the  impulses  of  developing  human  nature  in  social 
relationships.     Social  attitudes,  habits  of  speech  and  manner  of 


5  See  Dykema,  in  Chubb,  Festivals  and  Plays  in  School  and  Elsewhere. 

6  Sadler,  M.  E.,  The  Eurhythmies  of  Balcroze. 


276       University  of  California  Puhlications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

address  are  developed  which  contain  many  inconsistencies  and 
conflicts  and  which  change  in  emphasis  and  importance  by  age 
periods,  but  fuse  gradually  into  a  system  of  ways  of  acting  that 
determines  the  adult's  social  adjustment.    In  addition,  there  are 
I         the  developing  ideas  and  habits  in  the  relationship  of  boys  and 
I         girls  that  differentiate  during  the  adolescent  years  into  sex  habits 
I         and  ideals  and  lay  the  foundation  for  adult  domestic  adjustment. 
I         Therefore  in  the  general  social  life  of  the  Play  School  and  in 
'        the  social  life  connected  with  each  special  group  of  activity  con- 
duct must  be  guided  by  each  leader  according  to  accepted  social 
standards  of  individual  and  group  fair-play,  good  humor,  cour- 
tesy, justice  and  common  sense,  yet  ideal  social  relationships. 
The  foundation  for  social  and  citizenship  adjustment,  sex  hygiene 
y^   and  domestic  adjustment  must  be  established  in  this  leadership. 
A  special  social  hour  should  be  organized  to  co-ordinate  the 
social   side  of  the  activities  and  to   give  the   opportunity  for 
establishing  democratic  ideals.    From  this  the  leadership  should 
extend  to  the  spontaneous  group  organizations  in  and  out  of  the 
Play  School. 

Vocal  and  Linguistic  Activities  arise  from  the  vocalizing  and 
communicative  instincts.  These  instincts  are  the  primary  ele- 
ments in  the  evolution  of  the  languages  and  the  literatures  of 
the  world.  In  the  child,  these  activities  begin  in  vocalization 
and  develop  through  imitation  and  the  need  for  communication 
into  the  vernacular. 

Linguistic  activities  are  associated  with  each  group  of  activ- 
ities. The  child  tends  to  vocalize  his  thoughts  and  feelings.  He 
is  the  great  questioner.  Conversations  arise.  Thus  he  develops 
language  as  a  tool  and  elaborates  a  system  of  ideas.  Both  these 
tendencies  should  be  perfected  through  leadership.  Language 
is  the  tool  of  knowledge  and  rational  adjustment.  Conversation 
consciously  developed  through  sympathy  or  elicited  and  directed 
is  the  method  that  gives  progress  in  language  power,  thought 
and  systematic  information,  and  carries  with  it  the  living  motive. 
In  the  activities  interests  develop  that,  under  leadership,  are 
expressed  in  narratives  and  discussions,  and  these  are  the  oppor- 
tunities for  mind  "fertilization,"  as  well  as  the  elevation  of  ex- 
periences to  the  level  of  general  ideas  and  conscious  understand- 


1914]  Hetherington.—TJie  Play  School  of  1913.  277 

ings.  These  conversations  are  also  distinctly  language  lessons 
and  should  be  guided  carefully  as  such. 

With  the  development  of  the  activities  and  interest  under 
leadership,  the  need  arises  for  a  written  language  and  it  should 
be  taught  at  this  time.  When  gained  as  a  tool,  it  should  he  used, 
not  in  reading  unrelated  stuff,  hut  in  connection  with  the  activ- 
ities as  a  source  of  information,  and  as  a  real  phase  of  living. 

For  the  little  children,  story-telling  of  a  rational  kind  should 
have  a  prominent  place  and  later  this  function  should  become 
supplementary  in  helping  the  individual  select  stories  to  read 
that  are  adapted  to  his  needs.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that 
leadership  will  bring  children  to  the  realization  that  there  is  a 
literature  to  cover  each  interest  and  satisfy  each  desire  in  life. 

Number,  for  the  child,  is  a  linguistic  activity.  It  should  be 
developed  in  connection  with  his  games  and  later  manual  and 
environmental  activities. 

The  absorption  of  a  foreign  tongue,  naturally  by  its  use  in 
play,  is  another  phase  of  these  linguistic  activities,  and  when  the 
environment  makes  it  desirable  can  be  easily  brought  about. 

Economic  Activities  arise  out  of  organic  hungers,  the  acquis- 
itive impulse  and  economic  needs  and  desires.  The  child  is  de- 
pendent and  gains  his  economic  adjustment  through  the  family, 
but  the  necessity  of  labor  to  produce  wealth  and  of  paying  others 
for  wealth  desired  is  ever  present,  and  frequently  arouses  eco- 
nomic activities  which  need  guidance.  So  leadership  should  be 
given  in  earning  money  by  service  or  effort  that  produces  eco- 
nomic values.  The  organization  of  vacant-lot  gardens  and  leader- 
ship in  marketing  produce  is  important.  The  opportunities  for 
house  and  yard  repairs  at  home  and  in  the  neighborhood  need 
leadership.  Taking  contracts,  with  the  figuring  of  materials,  cost 
and  profits,  are  frequently  possible  even  among  children.  Bank- 
ing, the  use  of  the  United  States  postal  savings  depositories,  and 
personal  bookkeeping  are  phases  of  these  activities.  The  drama- 
tization of  store  and  house  with  buying  and  selling  familiarizes 
the  child  with  the  social  forms  of  exchange. 


278       TJniversiUj  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   ["Vol.  5 


Summary 

If  the  analysis  of  the  several  classes  of  activities  as  given  is 
practically  correct,  then  we  have  a  natural  grouping  of  child 
activities  susceptible  of  practical  organization  and  administration 
for  efficient  educational  results  when  considered  from  any  stand- 
point of  educational  theory  or  practice.  Criticism  and  continued 
experience  will  doubtless  dictate  some  changes,  but  the  classi- 
fication shows  at  least  the  possibility  of  organizing  several  groups 
of  activities: 

(1)  That  include  all  the  spontaneous  and  traditional  tenden- 
cies in  child  life; 

(2)  That  express,  in  child  form,  the  human  tendencies  that 
have  created  civilization; 

(3)  That  retain  in  natural  and  related  forms  the  germs  and 
expanding  lines  of  every  subject  of  interest  that  has  arisen  with 
adult  civilization; 

(4)  That  give  the  opportunity  for  so  directing  the  child's 
living  forces  that  he  will  expand  naturally  according  to  his 
capacities  into  an  inheritance  of  some  part  of  the  race  achieve- 
ments ; 

(5)  That  meet  the  demands  of  every  aim  of  education 
whether  of  development  or  adjustment,  and  therefore  that  relate 
the  claims  of  physical,  moral,  vocational  and  cultural  education. 

(6)  That  simplify  the  problem  of  co-operation  between  the 
play-school  center  and  the  home; 

(7)  That  present  the  basis  for  a  school  programme  which  will 
not  devitalize  children  who  are  subjected  to  three  or  four  hours 
of  it,  and  may  be  extended  to  the  whole  waking  life  for  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year,  making  every  child 
physically,  intellectually,  and  morally  stronger. 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  279 


II 

THE  SUMMER  DEMONSTRATION 

The  summer  demonstration  of  the  Play  School  was  held  in 
the  eucalyptus  grove  west  of  the  cinder  track  on  the  campus  of 
the  University  of  California.  Opening  June  23  and  closing 
August  2,  it  lasted  six  weeks  corresponding  to  the  summer  session 
of  the  University.  The  daily  session  was  confined  to  the  morning 
hours  in  order  that  the  school  might  not  conflict  with  the  work 
of  the  model  playground  organized  for  all  the  children  of  Berke- 
ley, as  a  practice  center  for  students. 

The  fact  that  the  Play  School  lasted  but  three  hours  a  day 
for  six  weeks  in  contrast  to  the  theoretical  all-day,  365-days-in- 
the-year  programme,  and  that  some  of  the  leaders  could  give 
only  part  time,  put  limitations  on  the  demonstration  that  must 
be  constantly  kept  in  mind. 

Nevertheless,  a  conservative  judgment,  based  on  the  attitude 
and  comments  of  children,  parents,  Play  School  leaders,  edu- 
cators and  social  workers,  would  pronounce  it  a  success. 

The  plan  adopted  for  the  summer  Play  School  emphasized 
those  elements  that  are  fundamentally  important  in  the  child's 
education  and  susceptible  of  demonstration  during  a  brief  period, 
i.e.,  the  effective  organization  and  leadership  of  activities,  perfect 
freedom  yet  perfect  discipline,  and  the  insinuation  of  a  social 
spirit  and  ethical  ideal  into  every  activity. 

The  eucalyptus  grove,  converted  from  a  university  wood  and 
trash  pile  into  a  place  of  beauty,  had  many  advantageous  points 
for  a  Play  School.  Contrasted  with  the  ordinary  schoolroom 
and  yard,  it  was  a  source  of  inspiration  to  those  interested  in 
education  and  child  welfare.  The  only  inconvenience  experi- 
enced from  the  elements  was  due  to  the  influence  of  the  wind 
in  those  activities  requiring  the  handling  of  paper,  but  this  could 
be  easily  remedied  by  a  few  adjustable  canvas  walls. 

Because  of  uncertainty  as  to  enrollment  and  conservatism 
in  expenditures,  the  equipment  in  the  several  activities  was  re- 


280       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol.  5 

duced  to  the  minimum,  which  fact  caused  many  administrative 
complications.  The  cost  was  greatly  reduced  by  the  co-operation 
of  the  agricultural,  manual  arts  and  zoological  departments. 

Though  the  general  equipment  was  very  simple,  the  material 
environment  can  be  made  ideal  for  a  Play  School  with  little 
additional  expense,  and  it  will  then  serve  as  a  model  for  the 
summer  months  in  other  communities.  For  the  winter,  addi- 
tional protection  from  the  rain  and  wind  would  be  needed. 

Applications  for  admission  were  so  numerous  that  the  enroll- 
ment had  to  be  limited  almost  from  the  start  and  a  long  waiting 
list  accumulated.  The  total  enrollment  was  207 ;  the  waiting  list 
99;  the  average  daily  attendance  147;  maximum  attendance  on 
one  day  207.  Totals  by  groups  were:  Four-  to  five-year-old 
group,  56 ;  seven  to  eight,  43 ;  nine  to  ten,  45 ;  over  ten,  girls  34, 
boys  29.  The  many  applications  for  the  admission  of  children 
above  and  below  the  age  limits  do  not  appear  in  these  figures. 

Though  applications  were  made  by  parents  for  younger  chil- 
dren, the  enrollment  was  limited  to  those  between  the  ages  of 
four  and  twelve.  However,  three  adolescent  girls  and  two  adoles- 
cent boys  were  enrolled  because  of  their  personal  insistence  and 
willingness  "to  do  anything  to  get  in." 

Because  of  the  necessity  for  accompanying  their  parents  on 
vacation  trips,  some  pupils  dropped  out  and  a  few  were  substi- 
tuted. This  fact  caused  the  daily  attendance  to  fluctuate,  though 
the  pupils  who  remained  in  town  were  faithful.  It  was  the 
unanimous  feeling  of  the  staff  that  the  enrollment  of  another 
year  should  be  confined  to  those  who  could  attend  regularly. 

For  convenience,  the  children  enrolled  were  divided  into  four 
groups:  those  four  and  five  years  old;  six  and  seven;  eight  and 
nine;  and  ten  to  thirteen.  In  the  older  groups,  the  boys  and 
girls  were  separated.  This  classification  worked  very  satisfac- 
torily this  year  for  the  purposes  of  the  demonstration,  both  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  children  and  that  of  the  organization  of 
activities.  But,  under  all-year  conditions,  it  would  have  to  be 
more  detailed  and  flexible. 

Through  the  efforts  of  several  University  officials,  a  staff 
of  leaders  or  teachers  was  organized,  which  was  willing  to  meet 
the  demands  of  a  brief  summer  demonstration.     Such  a  staff 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  281 

was  necessarily  quite  different  from  that  required  for  the  regular 
school,  and  included  a  supervisor,  a  group  of  expert  leaders  and 
assistants  drawn  from  the  summer  session  students.  The  super- 
visor was  responsible  for  the  classification  of  children,  the  organ- 
ization and  leadership  of  the  activities,  the  physical  and  moral 
conditions  and  the  social  spirit  of  the  whole  school. 

The  activities  of  the  children  between  four  and  six  years  of  \X 
age  were  organized  under  one  leader,  with  assistants.  Children 
above  six  were  organized  departmentally  under  experts  in  the 
several  activities.  Though  departmental  organization  for  the 
younger  children  may  be  inadvisable  under  usual  conditions,  it 
seemed  essential  under  summer  conditions  to  give  a  clear  demon- 
stration. 

It  was  planned  to  have  a  summer  session  student  in  charge 
of  each  group  of  children  to  look  after  their  general  welfare 
and  assist  the  leaders,  but  only  one  full-time  assistant  could  be 
secured,  and  she  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  six-  and  seven-year- 
old  group. 

Departmental  leaders  were  appointed  for  the  various  activ- 
ities— the  big-muscle,  manual,  environmental  and  nature,  musical 
and  linguistic  (with  which  the  dramatic  were  combined).  The 
supervisor  gave  special  attention  to  the  social  activities. 

As  two  of  the  leaders  could  give  only  part  time  on  account 
of  lecture  courses  and  as  student  assistants  could  be  secured  only 
for  irregular  hours,  the  number  involved  in  the  work  was  large 
and  was  no  criterion  of  the  staff  necessary  for  a  play  school 
under  normal  all-year  conditions."  The  large  number  of  visitors 
aLso  made  necessary  an  assistant  to  the  supervisor  and  a  gate- 


7  Those  involved  in  the  summer  demonstration  were  as  follows: 

Beach,  Dr.  E.  C,  Director  Department  Physical  Education  and  Play, 
Summer  Session. 

Hetherington,  Clark  W.,  Director  of  Play  School. 

Hetherington,  Mrs.  D.  Alford,  Supervisor  of  Play  School. 

Shafer,  Miss  J.  F.,  Assistant  to  Supervisor. 

Hunt,  Miss,  student,  attendant  at  gate  (part  time). 

Leader  of  four-  and  five-year-old  group,  Miss  Eose  Sheehan,  supervisor 
kindergarten  department,  Sacramento;  assisted  by  the  Misses  Mizpah 
Jackson  and  Helen  Hoskins  and  Miss  Vera  F.  Holland,  who  cared  for  the 
physical  needs  of  the  children,  and  part  time  by  Miss  Theresa  Summerfield. 

Student  assistant  in  charge  of  the  six-  and  seven-year-old  group,  Miss 
Anna  Lang. 

Leader  of  big-muscle  activities,  Mrs.  Irma  H.  Hutchinson,  supervisor 
of  physical  training,  elementary  schools,  Los  Angeles;  assisted  by  Miss 


282       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education,   [^o^-  ^ 

keeper.  This  situation,  however,  did  not  effect  the  attitude  or 
interest  of  the  children. 

The  departmental  leaders  were  secured  from  among  public 
school  teachers  of  subjects  most  closely  related  to  our  classified 
activities.  None  of  them  were  trained  to  handle  all  the  phases 
of  the  group  activity  for  all  the  age  periods.  Some  problems 
developed  because  of  this  fact.  "While  there  was  a  slight  ten- 
dency for  the  spirit  of  the  teacher  to  appear  instead  of  that  of 
the  leader,  this  was  to  be  expected,  especially  in  a  demonstration 
of  such  short  duration.  As  the  ideal  of  the  Play  School  became 
clearer  to  the  staff,  its  already  earnest  efforts  were  in  most  cases 
intensified  by  enthusiasm  and  self-sacrificing  devotion;  and  it 
was  to  this  fact  that  the  success  of  the  demonstration  was  largely 
due. 

This  enthusiasm  may  shed  some  light  on  the  problem  of 
securing  Play  School  leaders.  The  question  of  securing  instruc- 
tors for  a  comparatively  new  field  is  always  replete  with  diffi-- 
culties,  but  teachers  are  alert,  anxious  to  gain  help  on  every  hand 
and  many  are  already  using  methods,  wherever  possible  under 
their  cramped  conditions,  which  tend  to  relieve  the  worst  features 
of  our  schoolroom  work.  They  will  rapidly  accept  every  better 
way  of  doing  things,  when  our  practical  school  organizers  give 
them  an  opportunity. 

In  spite  of  the  brevity  of  the  demonstration,  the  several 
groups  of  activities  were  organized  and  conducted  through  the 
session  with  the  exceptions  of  the  physical  nature  experimenta- 
tions, for  which  we  had  no  equipment,  and  the  economic  activities. 


Mable  Ish  and  part  time  by  the  Misses  P.  Eeed,  Edna  Farley  and  Lelia 
Grasscock. 

Leader  of  manual  activities,  Mr.  Phillip  S.  Hasty,  instructor  of  manual 
training,  Oakland  Intermediate  School;  assisted  part  time  by  Mr.  Geo.  H. 
Jenson  and  Miss  Lulu  West. 

Leader  of  environmental  and  nature  activities,  John  E.  Imrie,  princi- 
pal of  the  LeConte  School,  Berkeley;  assisted  by  Miss  D.  Fish  (resigned) 
and  then  by  Miss  Jean  Cunningham  of  Berkeley,  and  part  time  by  Mr. 
J.  E.  Cuddeback  and  Mr.  Wade  Thomas.  Mr.  H.  J.  Snooks  was  appointed 
caretaker  of  the  animals  and  equipment  borrowed  from  the  zoological 
department. 

Leader  of  story-telling  and  dramatic  activities,  Miss  Alice  O.  Hunt, 
teacher  of  grade  schools,  Alameda. 

Leader  of  rythmic  and  musical  activities,  Miss  Olive  Wilson,  teacher 
of  music,  San  Francisco;  assisted  by  Mrs.  Ida  E.  Varney  and  Miss  Harriet 
Thompson. 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  283 

The  dramatic  activities  were  combined  with  story-telling  and  only 
partially  developed. 

Story-telling  was  emphasized,  but,  apart  from  the  conversa- 
tions connected  with  the  several  activities,  no  general  attempt 
was  made  to  organize  the  more  specialized  or  developed  linguistic 
activities  or  to  attach  interest  to  book  sources  except  as  this 
could  be  done  incidentally.  Such  effort  during  the  brief  time 
at  our  disposal  would  have  distracted  attention  from  what  we 
considered  the  fundamental  part  of  the  demonstration.  Another 
summer  it  will  be  possible  to  organize  the  book  resources  con- 
nected with  the  activities. 

The  programme  of  three  hours  daily  made  it  impossible  to 
organize  apart  from  the  assembly  period  a  special  social  hour. 
Particular  attention,  however,  was  given  to  the  general  social 
life  of  the  children,  with  most  satisfactory  results. 

We  had  no  apparatus  to  develop  the  gymnastic  plays,  but 
the  games  and  dancing  demonstrated  again  the  dominant  value 
of  big-muscle  activities.  Though  our  programme  does  not  make 
it  entirely  clear,  we  wished  to  show  that  the  big-muscle,  the  man- 
ual and  the  environmental  and  nature  activities  should,  under 
leadership  skilled  in  the  conversational  and  social  elements,  oc- 
cupy the  greater  part  of  the  child's  time.* 

The  excursions  had  to  be  confined  to  Saturday  mornings,  and 
the  unusual  hour  caused  some  difficulty  at  first,  but  they  grew 
in  popularity.  One  over-night  trip  to  Eedwood  Caiion,  made 
possible  by  the  summer  school  instructors  in  physical  education, 
was  a  source  of  great  satisfaction  and  pleasant  associations  to  the 
older  boys.    A  similar  trip  for  the  girls  was  prevented  by  rain. 

A  very  earnest  effort  to  demonstrate  the  development  of  mus- 
ical power  by  play  methods  secured  valuable  results  with  the  little 
children,  but  failed  with  the  larger  children. 

The  questions  of  choice  of  activity  by  the  children  and  the 
time  for  the  activities,  two  problems  of  broad  educational  signifi- 
cance, had  to  be  settled  more  or  less  arbitrarily.  The  question 
of  whether  or  not  the  children  should  be  allowed  to  choose  one 
or  more  activities  from  the  classified  list  and  neglect  the  rest, 
or  should  be  organized  according  to  the  full  programme,  was 
settled  in  favor  of  the  latter  alternative  for  four  reasons :    First, 


284       University  of  California  Publications  in  Education.   [Vol-  5 

we  wished  to  test  the  soundness  of  our  classification.  If  sound, 
all  children  will  enter  all  activities,  but  with  wide  individual 
variations.  This  is  a  problem  to  be  met  by  leadership.  Second, 
under  present  social  conditions,  the  choice  of  children  is  untrust- 
worthy until  they  are  organized  in  activities  in  which  latent 
hungers  and  instincts  are  expressed.  Third,  the  form  of  the 
activity  is  controlled  largely  by  imitation.  Fourth,  we  have  no 
data  as  to  the  distribution  of  time  in  the  different  classes  of 
activities  at  the  several  age  periods  necessary  to  develop  efficiency 
in  adult  life.  For  these  reasons  we  organized  practically  all  the 
children  in  all  the  classes  of  activities. 


Daily  Schedule  by  Groups  and  Periods 


4  to  5 
Group 


6  to  7 
Group 


8  to  9 
Group 


10  to  13  Group 
Girls  Boys 


9:00 

to 

10:00 


10:00 

to 
11:00 


11:00 

to 
12:00 


Opening  Assembly  Social  Period:  Music,  Announcements,  etc. 

Linguistic  activities 


1:30 

to 
5:30 


This 
grouj) 
having 

a 
special 
leader 
required 
no 
pro- 
gramme 
adjust- 
ments 


Big-muscle 
activities 

Linguistic 
activities 


Manual 
activities 

Ehythmic 

musical 

activities 


Nature 
activities 

Big-muscle 

activities 


Manual 
activities 


Linguistic 
activities 

Big-muscle 
activities 


Ehythmic 

musical 

activities 

Nature 
activities 


Ehythmic 

musical 

activities 


Big-muscle 
activities 

Nature  or 

manual 

activities 


Manual 
activities 


Big-muscle 
activities 


Ehythmic 

musical 

activities 

Nature  or 

manual 

activities 


Manual 
activities 


Activities  on  model  playground  and  excursions 
Saturday  mornings:     Excursions.     Over-night  excursions  for  older  group 


Instead  of  allowing  each  child  to  enter  into  an  activity  only 
when  the  impulse  prompted,  we  had  a  definite  time  for  each 
activity.  Our  reasons  for  this  decision  were :  First,  the  former 
plan  required  the  leader  to  be  on  hand  at  all  times  and  some  of 


1914]  Hetherington.—The  Platj  School  of  1913.  285 

our  leaders  could  give  only  part  time;  second,  the  first  plan 
mixes  the  age  groups  and  this  complicates  the  problem  of  the 
leaders;  third,  in  the  spontaneous  life  of  children,  the  impulse 
of  the  individual  yields  to  the  will  of  the  group ;  fourth,  it  has 
been  demonstrated  on  some  of  the  best  playgrounds  that  chil- 
dren prefer  a  schedule  of  activities :  a  definite  time  for  an  activ- 
ity; fifth,  the  daily  and  mental  physical  rhythms,  the  fluctua- 
tions in  susceptibilities  to  enthusiasms  at  different  hours  and 
the  transitions  of  interests  must  still  be  worked  out.  Therefore, 
each  activity  was  scheduled  at  a  specific  time,  as  shown  in  the 
foregoing  schedule. 


Results  and  Criticisms 

Health.  The  health  of  the  children  was  excellent.  Even  a 
casual  observer  could  see  the  improvement  during  the  six  weeks. 
Although  contagious  diseases  existed  in  the  city,  none  were  con- 
tracted in  the  Play  School.  Three  children  had  to  be  sent  home 
on  account  of  pediculosis,  but  later  returned  in  satisfactory  con- 
dition. The  physical  freedom,  the  pure  air,  the  opportunity  for 
social  contact  (the  three  factors  so  lacking  in  the  regular  school- 
room and  so  vitally  necessary  to  the  development  of  efficient 
human  beings)  were  most  conspicuously  present.  At  the  close 
of  the  daily  session,  the  children  were  as  fresh  physically  and 
mentally  as  at  the  beginning. 

The  result  with  the  children.  The  children  were  exceedingly 
happy,  free,  alert,  and  concentrated.  A  backward  boy  in  the 
public  school  said:  *'I  don't  know  why,  but  somehow  I  like  to 
go  to  this  here  school."  On  the  final  day  several  children  cried 
because  school  was  closing  and  many  more  expressed  earnest 
regrets.  Discipline,  as  the  word  is  ordinarily  understood,  was 
practically  nil.  A  look  or  a  word  and,  two  or  three  times,  a  brief 
discussion  was  all  that  was  necessary.  A  suggestion  that  a  child 
was  discourteous  or  should  go  home  was  considered  the  extreme 
punishment. 

The  children  were  free  within  the  limits  of  staying  with  their 
groups.  Naturally,  there  was  noise.  Habitually  the  little  chil- 
dren passed  from  one  activity  to  another  on  the  run  and  with 


286       University  of  California  PuhUcations  in  Education,   i^ol.  5 

a  whoop.  But  there  was  law  and  order  in  it  all,  and  frequently 
a  quiet  that  was  surprising. 

Concentration  was  generally  marked.  The  children  were 
indifferent  to  outside  attractions.  One  day  when  two  hundred 
visitors  were  present  "the  absorption  of  the  children  in  their 
work"  was  observed  as  a  striking  characteristic  of  the  school. 
Where  teaching  developed  in  the  activities,  attention  was  as  easily 
held  as  within  four  walls.  The  only  place  where  "holding  at- 
tention" appeared  as  a  problem  was  in  the  more  formal  side  of 
the  musical  activities,  and  even  here  it  was  in  process  of  practical 
solution  when  the  school  closed. 

The  courtesy  in  the  leadership  soon  developed  the  spirit  of 
courtesy  and  co-operation  among  the  children.  An  older  "diffi- 
cult boy"  a  "leader  in  trouble"  soon  found  himself  a  leader  in 
courtesy  and  co-operation. 

Instead  of  the  "teacher"  driving  the  children,  one  might 
almost  say  that  the  children  came  to  the  point  in  several  activities 
of  driving  the  leaders  through  their  eagerness.  Frequently, 
though  not  generally,  the  attitude  approached  the  ideal:  one  of 
eager  and  intense  effort,  with  the  idea  of  the  leader  as  an  aid 
in  satisfying  hungers  and  as  a  source  of  appeal  in  case  of  diffi- 
culty. The  spirit  and  attitude  of  the  children  during  the  summer 
demonstration  seems  to  indicate  just  what  has  been  revealed 
many  times  before:  that  it  is  possible  through  leadership  to 
have  perfect  freedom  combined  with  perfect  control.  This  is 
the  ideal. 

The  attitude  of  the  parents.  Many  parents  visited  the  school. 
Some  came  with  their  children  and  spent  the  morning  watching 
the  children  and  leaders  in  their  activites.  Some  brought  their 
home  habits  and  frequently  "nagged"  their  children,  but  they 
saw  quite  a  diffierent  method  of  dealing  with  children  demon- 
strated. 

This  visiting  by  parents  is  suggestive  in  fulfilling  the  theory 
concerning  the  relationship  betwen  the  home  and  the  school. 
If  the  Play  School  is  to  become  the  community  center  of  the 
child's  active  life,  it  must  also  become  a  social  center  for  parents 
where  they  may  see  their  children  in  that  life  and  learn  how 
to  co-operate  in  it.    Several  parents  volunteered  the  information 


y" 


1914]  Hethermgton.—The  Play  School  of  1913.  287 

that  they  would  forego  a  vacation  next  year  in  order  that  their 
children  might  be  in  the  play  school. 

Attitude  of  visitors.  Generous,  indeed,  was  the  attitude  of 
visitors.  The  staff  assumed  the  policy  that  visitors  had  a  right 
to  see  and  learn  to  the  limit  of  actual  interference  with  the 
activites  and  if  the  visitors  were  met  with  courtesy  they  would 
respond  in  a  like  spirit. 

Visitors  were  numerous,  interest  exceedingly  keen,  but  harsh 
criticism  entirely  lacking.  Criticism  was  expected,  but  less  was 
received  than  might  easily  have  been  given  by  educators.  The 
desire  for  information  was  evinced  by  the  many  questions.  All 
through,  the  attitude  seemed  to  be  one  of  generous  inquiry.  The 
majority  of  inquiries  covered  the  relation  of  the  scheme  to  the 
public  school  system,  the  problem  of  cost,  the  place  of  the  formal 
subjects  of  study  in  the  programme  of  activities,  and  the  source 
of  "competent  teachers." 

Expressions  of  approbation  were  numerous.  A  Boston  edu- 
cational woman  said:  "I  have  seen  many  educational  experi- 
ments in  the  United  States,  but  this  is  the  finest. ' '  Such  phrases 
as  "this  is  perfect"  or  "ideal,"  or  "this  seems  like  a  dream." 
or  "you  are  on  the  right  track — keep  up  the  good  work,"  were 
frequent.  One  mother  voiced  a  sentiment  broadly  held, ' '  I  should 
consider  it  a  great  privilege  if  I  could  keep  my  children  in  such 
a  school  all  the  year."  More  substantial  was  the  declaration  of 
a  leading  commissioner  of  recreation  from  Oakland,  that  another 
year  the  Play  School  administration  might  have  two  or  three  of 
Oakland's  expert  playground  directors  for  their  full  time  while' 
paid  by  the  commission,  in  order  that  they  might  catch  the  spirit 
of  the  Play  School. 

Following  a  paper  on  the  Play  School  in  the  Pacific  Coast 
Conference  and  a  question  by  an  auditor  as  to  whether  the  Play 
School  would  be  "absorbed"  by  the  public  school,  Professor 
Kugh  of  the  University  of  California  declared  that  in  his  opinion 
the  Play  School  would  absorb  the  public  school,  as  a  part  of  the 
whole.  An  elderly  teacher  passed  in  this  interesting  statement 
headed  "An  Observer's  Comments  on  the  Play  School":  (1) 
This  is  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  war;  (2)  courtesy  is  wonder- 
fully developed  here;  (3)  democracy  is  the  keynote  of  the  play. 


288       University  of  California  Puhlications  in  Education,   [^ol.  5 

Recommendations 

1.  As  the  theory  of  the  Play  School  covers  the  ages  from 
early  infancy  to  the  time  approximately  of  adolescence,  arrange- 
ments should  be  made  another  year  for  handling  younger  and, 
if  possible,  older  children.  A  nursery  for  infants  between  the 
ages  of  one  and  four  years,  having  sleeping  and  feeding  accom- 
modations with  a  professional  nurse  and  a  special  leader  of 
infants  in  charge,  should  be  established  where  mothers  may  bring 
and  check  or  stay  with  their  infants  and  where  both  mothers 
and  teachers  may  see  the  physical  care  and  educational  leader- 
ship of  infants  demonstrated.  To  handle  the  older  childrer^ 
more  comprehensive  arrangements  for  manual  activities,  such  as 
cooking  and  for  the  leadership  of  excursions,  will  have  to  be 
made,  and  the  leaders  must  be  appointed  early  that  they  may 
have  sufficient  time  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  work. 

2.  Opportunities  should  be  afforded  the  summer  session 
students  having  the  required  ability  to  gain  experience  and  to 
secure  credit  either  as  group  leaders  or  as  assistants  to  the  depart- 
ment leaders.     This  would  also  solve  the  problem  of  assistants. 

3.  Though  not  essential,  it  would  be  of  great  value  to  have 
some  stationary  gymnastic  apparatus  installed.  Very  few  teach- 
ers or  school  authorities  appreciate  the  function  of  apparatus  in 
the  spontaneous  play -life  of  the  child. 


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y  Herbert  E.  Cory. 
Vyneken.    Pp.  1-85. 
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phevill.    Pp.  1-268. 


f.  Publ.  Philos. 
of  the   seventieth 

Fovember,  1904  2.( 

ry,  Sage  Professor 


d  Mezes,  Professor 

55  

olm  Stratton,  Pro- 
}pkins  University. 


l.i 
2.! 


ber,  Assistant  Pro- 

1.  72-91  

fue  Bakewell,  Pro- 
sity  of  California. 


!St  Norton  Hender- 

»p.  115-124 

by  Jesse  Dismukes 
erson,  New  Jersey. 


ken  Love  joy,  Pro- 
».  141-174 

Stuart,  Professor 
ity.  Pp.  171-205.... 
Lopez  de  Laguna, 

I.  206-226 

structor  in  Psych- 
5  

Allen  Overstreet, 
Ornia.  Pp.  236-262. 
.  1-29.  May,  1909. 
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5                                  6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling        642-3405 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

MTO  DISC  CIRC     0 

:C03'93 

MAY  0  1  2003 

ffft  n^ 

—    ■  T  *»■* 

SEP  2  7 

?m? 

1 

m 

FORM  NO.  DD6 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CA 
BERKELEY, 

LIFORNIA,  BERKELEY       1 
CA  94720             ^        L 

